Breath Testing

If a police officer suspects you of drinking and driving in New London, they may pull you over and ask you to submit to a breath test. There are various factors to consider before agreeing to a test. If you ultimately fail a breath test and are charged with DUI, not to fear! A New London DUI defense attorney can review the circumstances of your breath test and help determine if the results were accurate or not. If they are not, your lawyer can fight to have the results dismissed as evidence against you.

What is Breath Testing?

Breath testing is one way that law enforcement determine a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and ultimately if they should be arrested for DUI or not. The current breath test system used in Connecticut is the breathalyzer device. This is a device whereby a person blows into a mouthpiece and a reading is determined which states the person’s BAC level. If the level is .08% or higher, you are over the legal limit and the police might proceed in arresting you for DUI.

However, there are a lot of factors to keep in mind when dealing with the breath test. Scientists claim that there are so many potential problems with this device that it can be up to .03% inaccurate. That is a significant potential error that can quickly take you from being under the legal limit to being over.

There can be issues with the administration of this test, reading the results, and the device itself. For example, a police officer may not give proper instructions when asking someone to take the test. Breathalyzer devices also need to be recalibrated periodically to prevent inaccuracies. Failure to follow recalibration protocol could result in skewed readings.

Other issues could arise because not all people taking this test are created equal. Variations such as medical conditions, weight, gender, etc. could alter the results and have nothing to do with alcohol consumption. Even things such as eating before taking the test, burping, etc. can have an impact on the results.

All of these potential issues should be considered when a person fails a breath test to determine if it was a true failure or if there are other factors at play.

Implied Consent

You might be wondering if you should submit to breath testing or not when a police officer asks you to take a test. Keep in mind that Connecticut has an implied consent law which you will be in violation of if you refuse the test. The implied consent law in Connecticut states that by driving on Connecticut roads, you give automatic consent to take a breath test when prompted to do so by the police. Refusing the breath test will result in an automatic driver’s license suspension, even if you are not ultimately charged with or convicted of a DUI. This is certainly something to keep in mind before refusing a test.

As you can see, test results can oftentimes be refuted by a good DUI attorney. In most cases, it is a good idea to submit to the breath test and fight the results later, but you can discuss your situation or specific questions that you have with an attorney.