Breathalyzer source code must be disclosed

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Accurate?

Here's some anecdotal evidence for you (of which I am NOT proud) . . .
Though I don't drink these days, when I was a young man, 25 years ago, I often drank too much and was known to drive when drunk at times as well. I only ever got pulled over once when driving drunk. On that particular instance, I had started drinking on Friday when I got off work, and had been drinking non-stop and had not slept when I was pulled over Sunday night. I would estimate by that point I had had 6 cases of beer and 10 or so mixed drinks covering about 48 hours. I had an open beer in my hand when stopped, and had been drinking while driving. The officer who stopped me asked about the beer I had, I lied and told him I had been working all weekend and was just sipping one while driving home. He could smell I had consumed a great deal, and had me go behind the car to blow through the breathalyzer. The first time I blew through the Breathalyzer, it blew a 0.0. The officer looked puzzled, took about 10 minutes to recalibrate it, and had me blow threough it again. It again showed 0.0. He recalibrated it again, and had me blow through it a third time. Again, it showed 0.0. He told me at that point that though he had strong suspicion that I was drunk, he wasn't going to arrest me with three consecutive breathalyzer tests showing I wasn't, but he urged me to carefully drive directly home, which I was smart enough to do. The point of this whole story is that I KNOW that breathalyzers are inaccurate, and they don't just read high, they sometimes read low as well. To have peoples good names and futures at risk, with the only thing tipping the balance these horrendously inaccurate machines, is a crime.

Posted by: HiRezL   Posted on: 11/07/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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