When other countries (notably Europe) use roadside ‘Breathalyzer’ test machines? It seems a high-functioning drunk could get away with DUI in the US, when they wouldn’t in France or the UK?
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From what I’ve seen, the field sobriety tests are usually followed by a breathalyzer. A failed field sobriety test with a clean breathalyzer could indicate someone is under the influence of a substance that isn’t alcohol – like marijuana or any other drug – which would still be a DWI/DUI.
A breathalyzer only tests for alcohol and has a margin of error of ~.02% BAC. The higher the person’s BAC, the more inaccurate they are. That also assumes that the breathalyzer is being regularly calibrated. If not, the breathalyzer will become more inaccurate over time. The same is true in ht
You are legally drunk at .08% BAC. Assuming that the breathalyzer is well maintained, about half of the people who are at exactly .08% will test below that, 1/4 of the people who are at .09% will test below, and a small percentage of people at .1% will test below. The same is true in the other direction – ~1/2 of the people at .079% will test above .08% while 1/4 of the people at .07% will test above .08%, and a small but real percentage of people at .06% will test above it as well.
Strictly speaking, a DUI charge is based on impairment, not how much alcohol is in your system. The easiest way to check that for a drunk person is to test how much alcohol is in their blood – which can only be done with a blood test at a hospital.
But drunk people aren’t the only people who drive while impaired.
Plenty of people are impaired as a result of something that isn’t alcohol, and some people will become impaired from tiny amounts of alcohol. Many psychedelic and designer drugs are impractical to test for, so even a blood test at a hospital will not detect them.
The easiest way to test for impairment is not a breathalyzer – its a field sobriety test. Breathalyzers are used in the US as a de-escalation tool, but they’re not legally admissible as evidence due to their inherent inaccuracy. Many EU countries continue to use breathalyzers as evidence because judicial standards are often significantly lower in the EU than they are in the US.
The US also breathalyzes. the field sobriety test can be used if you are not over the legal blood-alcohol limit, but there is reason to believe that you are too impaired to drive. So you can pass a breathalyzer but still be tested to see if you’re able to safely drive.
I might be wrong but I think if you are over the limit and also fail the field sobriety test, you get two separate infractions, meaning there are situations where you can fail one but not the other and end up with one infraction.
What if you’re high on weed, meth, coke or prescription drugs that explicitly state you can’t drive after taking them? The blood alcohol content would be 0.0%.
Simple. USA bad. Europe, France, and the UK are good countries. Not the US.
And also, you’re smarter than USA.
I doubt police are letting anyone just leave even if they “pass” roadside tests. Police just want more evidence
Because you can still be impaired, but not drunk. For example if you’re swerving all over the road, you might not be drunk, but might be having a stroke or eyesight issues or be on drugs or something, which is something that a breathalyzer doesn’t cover. Also, if the test comes back negative, that’s good news for the defense, whereas the officer saying “he was stumbling all over the place” is harder for a defense to refute.
Also, some states forbid breathalyzer tests because they think them unreliable (e.g. Kentucky)
Source:
[https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/65507/why-do-cops-in-the-usa-not-seem-to-use-the-technical-blow-into-device-test-for](https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/65507/why-do-cops-in-the-usa-not-seem-to-use-the-technical-blow-into-device-test-for)
In most (maybe all?) US states you need what is called ‘probable cause’ to insist on a breathalyzer. Police cannot set up a checkpoint and make people breathe into a tube in order to get through, nor can they breathalyze every person they pull over. They can suggest it, or ask, but you are allowed to say no. Once they feel they have established their probable cause in a way that can legally proven later, you can be penalized for not taking the test — at that point refusal to take it all counts as failure.
Field sobriety tests are a way for the officer to film / document your inebriated behavior so that they have demonstrable probable cause to arrest you or force you to take the actual test — the motivation for the inebriated person being that they think they can get out of it by doing well at the test, which they mostly can’t.
It’s a series of steps taken to ensure that there is no (yeah right) chance that the case against the driver will be dismissed.
You can blow a 1.0 BAC and apart from being entirely dead, get your case dismissed if the court deems that the test was applied unlawfully. So we have a whole song and dance to try to prevent that.
In order to compel a breathalyzer, the officer must have reasonable suspicion that you are intoxicated. Swerving a little bit might not reach that threshold, since maybe they didn’t see the obstacle you swerved to avoid, or there’s a mechanical issue. They can pull you over for the swerving, which is enough to compel a field sobriety test, especially if they smell alcohol. If you fail it, they can compel you to either take the breathalyzer, or compel a blood sample drawn. Depending on the jurisdiction, you can refuse the breathalyzer, but it may be an automatic suspension of license.
We also do both roadside breathalyzer tests *and* breathalyzer tests at the police station. The field sobriety test serves 2 purposes. First, even if the driver refuses the breathalyzer, if the person takes the FST and fails, that still gives the police probable cause to arrest the driver for impaired driving. Second, it’s to gather additional evidence of intoxication or impairment (by alcohol or another substance that wouldn’t show up on a breathalyzer) for the prosecutor to use when they charge the person with a DUI.
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