DUI Facts
The Facts About Drunk Driving
"Control” is the key word. You will not wipe out DUI any more than you will wipe out any other disease, or criminal behavior. But a healthy body is a body in “control,” and the same applies to a healthy society. Let's look at some facts. There is little doubt the 0.08 percent blood alcohol law is window dressing and avoids the real issues.
The fact is 0.08 percent is so low a blood alcohol level that several police officers have told me they cannot possibly tell the difference between 0.07% and 0.08% based on objective symptoms during the roadside sobriety tests. Consequently, if you admit to having had a drink or if the officer smells alcohol on your breath, you are going to be required to give a chemical test of your breath or blood, no matter how you do on the field sobriety test or roadside breath test. The foremost authority in the world on DUI, A. W. Jones from Sweden, refers to them on “monkey tests” and of no value in DUI testing.
Field Sobriety Test
So, should you do these embarrassing roadside tests at all? My answer is; don't ever take the so-called field sobriety test. First of all, it is not a sobriety test. It is a coordination test, and many people who clearly are not under the influence of alcohol simply are not coordinated.
That's a fact. If they want to use a coordination test to measure sobriety, they should require you to take a similar test once each year to provide a baseline from which to measure your performance at roadside.
Secondly, the tests are subjective and the officer can conclude you failed even if you are the most coordinated person in the world. He later will tell the jury at trial that you did poorly to prove he was right in arresting you and requiring a chemical test of your blood or breath, even though no biological scientist ever considers any performance on those coordination tests to be a "failure.". By the time you take that test your blood alcohol level may have increased and may, in fact, be 0.16 percent (over double the legal limit) or higher at that later point in time.
Depending upon when you had your last food and drink of alcohol, however, you easily could have been 0.04 percent, 0.06 percent, or 0.07 percent blood alcohol level at the time you were driving. The only blood alcohol level that is relevant or important under the Vehicle Code is the blood alcohol level at the time of driving. The fact you are determined to be 0.08 percent or more at a later point in time does not automatically make you guilty of breaking the law, under CVC Section 23152B (although there are legal presumptions not based upon fact or science to help the prosecution convict you).
Furthermore, any conclusion to be drawn from a blood alcohol level assumes the machine is measuring accurately, which often times is not the case. In order to challenge the blood alcohol level, it becomes necessary to take a test that retains a re-testable sample and retain a competent attorney to point this out to the jury and to show the arresting officer is not an objective, detached third party witness. He wants to see a conviction to vindicate his decision to arrest.
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