Breathalyzer

Kansas law enforcement police and prosecutors are cracking down on drunk driving more than ever. In order to ensure more convictions, many counties, such as Johnson County, have even upgraded their Breathalyzers from the Intoxilyzer 5000 to the Intoxilyzer 8000.

In Kansas, it illegal to drive with alcohol in your system at a reading of .08, even if you are not drunk. This is referred to as buzz driving and can carry the same sentence as if you are pulled over and found to be intoxicated at a higher level. The bottom line is that you should not drink and drive. But the truth is that many people do drive under the influence, particularly around the holidays when various parties are held at many establishments and homes around the city.

It is a frightening scenario when you are pulled over by the police and told that you are suspected of drinking and driving under the influence. There is a possibility that you will be arrested and taken to jail. The police officer will be asking you to take a breathalyzer test. Understanding how a breathalyzer works is good information to know.

What A Breathalyzer Does

A breathalyzer is machine that is designed to determine the amount of alcohol content in your blood. The reason for this determination is that studies have shown that if you have more than a certain quantity of alcohol in your blood, you are considered legally drunk and should not be operating a motor vehicle. The common term, DUI, stands for driving under the influence.

The breathalyzer works by being inserted into the mouth and blown into for a specified amount of time and amount of pressure. The blood alcohol content can be determined by the breath that is blown into the breathalyzer which gives a reading back to the law enforcement official who is taking the test. It supposedly doesn't read mouth alcohol, which would give false readings. Rather, it is supposed to read the alcohol from your lungs, giving an accurate reading of the blood alcohol content in your system. If you have been drinking and driving and are being given a breathalyzer, it is doubtful that you can tamper with a breathalyzer to make a different reading. If you don't blow hard enough, it will simply say you refused to blow. If you do blow hard enough, it will be able to read any alcohol in your system.

Correct Readings? KDHE Protocol

Numerous things do interfere or provide false readings. For example, if you are not deprived of intake for 15-20 minutes, the machine can falsely read things as blood alcohol when in reality it isn't. As DUI defense lawyers, we often have suppression hearings on such issues when attempting to prevent the prosecutor from bringing in such unreliable evidence at trial. The KDHE (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) manual says that law enforcement is not to allow ANY intake of ANYTHING for 20 minutes prior to taking the Intoxilyzer. Interestingly enough, the manual for the Intoxilyzer 8000 itself states to wait at least 15 minutes.

Also, pursuant to most PBT manuals, the officer is to deprive the suspect of alcohol for 15-20 minutes before administering it. The PBT is the in-field device used and is a little trickier to keep out, due to it being a deprivation period rather than an observation period. The PBT typically isn't admissible at a DUI trial anyway. However, it may be vital to have the PBT suppressed, in order to get the Intoxilyzer results suppressed, which generally are admissible at trial.

Sometimes the Breathalyzer machines fail or give false readings due to interfering signals, mouth alcohol, machine error, user error, physical disabilities, etc. An experienced DUI attorney should evaluate whether the machine was certified and operated properly.

What is a PBT?

A PBT is a small portable breath test. A PBT uses a small straw-like piece that is inserted into the mouth. This straw piece is connected to a small piece of equipment that works in a  manner similar to the way blood glucose meters for diabetics do, with the difference being that diabetics have to administer a small drop of blood into their meter to get a blood sugar reading. A PBT is more portable than the Intoxilyzer 8000 and can be carried in patrol cars for when drivers are pulled over. The Intoxilyzer 8000 is the more sophisticated machine used at the station. Some jurisdictions still use the older Intoxilyzer 5000.

A breathalyzer is the most widely recognized way to determine if you are under the influence. The other way is to have blood drawn, such as at a hospital if you have been in an accident. A UA can be done to determine if there were other things in your system. Blood tests are considered a more scientifically reliable test than breathalyzers.