Police Blotter: Breathalyzer code must be disclosed

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No, they can't

There's a lot more involved than your body weight -- your physiology is a lot more complex than that, with MANY more variables.

And the ONLY way to know rate of absorption is to watch your blood levels over time AND know the exact amounts and timing of ingestion, and work out the rate of elimination after it goes to zero...

No, determination of past BAC is only a rough estimate, and it can be very easily much lower or much higher. With a single sample, you don't even know if it was going up or down at that point in time!

This is basic pharmacodynamics. Reasonable estimates of BAC can, of course, be made, based on a specific set of assumptions (normal metabolism, typical stomach contents, time of ingestion, etc.). But I take issue with your characterization of this as an accurate[/] process.

That said -- I don't have a lot of sympathy for people in this position. Drinking and driving when there's ANY possibility that your BAC would make you a risk to others is just plain wrong. OK, so maybe your BAC was legal at the time of arrest, but illegal at the time of measurement. What if you were delayed while driving? Would you really know when you crossed that magic threshold, and would you have pulled over?

I would term getting off because it couldn't be shown that your BAC was illegal at the time of driving, when it was a short time later, to be getting off on a technicality. You were wrong.

I'm not saying you should not get off on the technicality -- if you're technically legal, I think our system of justice rightfully demands you get off. Just don't expect a lot of sympathy from me.

This could be avoided by changing the law to be not based on BAC, but on a level of injestion sufficient to produce a certain BAC within a certain time period of driving. As long as the BAC is determined within, say, two hours, if it's above 0.x%, it's illegal -- then the standard is clear, and neither side has to worry overmuch about timing.

Alternatively, drinking drivers (ugh) could carry their own breathalyzers to record their reading as they drive. Maybe the immediate feedback would contribute to safety. It would at least demonstrate that they had the capacity to cease driving if they became (legally) impaired.

Posted by: Bob.Kerns   Posted on: 01/28/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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