more alcoholics die of liver failure than potheads of ball cancer....


.. and for the record.... i think dui's in general would in fact reduce if it became a rule of thumb for cops to kick a dui right in the balls before arresting them..... since your foot might get stuck, a swift hulk smash to the titty would sufice for female dui's

but yeah if you ridin dirty around town and a cop stops you........the man will smell weed, call a k-9, cuff your ass.

toke at home not on the road.

 

^true story

 

Why else would you refuse a breath or blood test? of course unless you have something to hide.. Which is why they go ahead and hit you up on the charge anyways.. regardless you shouldnt be out there fucked up and driving

 

I don't drink or use drugs, at all.

Still, I think it's ridiculous to force someone to take the breath test. Why else would you refuse the test? Look into to how the Intoxilyzer works, it's garbage. There are many problems with it, but to help you in searching for just one google "intoxilyzer partition ratio." Again, hitting you with the charge in spite of refusing the test is one thing, hitting you with an auto-conviction is another thing.

I can understand how a blood draw is held not to be a violation of your right against compelled self-incrimination because it's more or less scientifically testable (but then, they're given immense weight and there is plenty of opportunity to mess it up), but the Intoxilyzer is no better than a polygraph. I think rather than let you refuse the blood draw and just give you what amounts to an auto-conviction, the state ought to either compel the draw (because the state can do so), or the state should convict you the old fashioned way, i.e. by showing that you exhibited evidence of impairment.

If the state is so convinced that the Intoxilyzer is good, why don't they use the attachment that is available to store the sample for subsequent independant testing by the defendant?

On the blood draw, one problem is that it takes time for alcohol to get into your blood stream and actually impair you. You might not have been impaired at the time of arrest, even though you were at the time of the blood draw.

We build these tests up like they're fool proof, and they're not. The Intoxilyzer is plain bad. There are lots of points at which bad administration can ruin a blood test, but without giving you a sample for your own independant testing, you'll never know. Why would you refuse? Maybe because you don't like being found guilty of a crime you didn't commit. It'd be one thing if the tests were afforded the appropriate weight, but they're not.

 

I know how the intoxilyzer works... I am certified on it. You know the rules and if you choose to break them then you are subject to the penalty... I’m not saying its right but a rule is a rule... and the rule is if you refuse then you will get charged... people know that and they still refuse. Why refuse?? If I am not drunk and a cop ask me to blow then god damnit I am going to blow because I don’t want to get charged with something I didn’t do, And I think that’s what whoever made the rule up had in mind when they did make it. If you blow and it’s not too bad it could be dropped to reckless driving instead of dui. I have seen both ways go down... Still don’t mean its ok

and furthermore i think you are thinking of the hand held one..which yes is garbage and can't be used in court..the one at the station however is pretty damn good.
also your not going to get charge if your BAC is .01 and honestly the breath test wont be off so much to give it enough of a false reading for them to charge you

 

No, I'm not talking about the PBT. Thank God that thing isn't admissible, though I do actually like it in its current role, i.e. helping the cop know if he has PC (also, I don't know about in VA, but in NC the highway patrol don't bother with field sobriety tests, they make observations of the driver in the car and use the PBT to determine if they need to arrest the driver and then conduct further testing at the station - this is a good use because we don't need highway patrolmen and defendants getting run over on the interstate). I'm talking about the Intoxilyzer. At a given moment the accurate partition ratio for the person may be 900:1, but the machine doesn't know that and sticks with 2100:1. That person's .04 just got him a DUI. Also, where's the temperature control? Yes, temperature has a very small impact on the accuracy, but it can be enough to send you over the edge. It can be thrown off by mouth alcohol, a long blow, and a variety of other things. Yes, outside of the partition ratio these only create small errors, but they have a way of adding up. And again, CMI makes an attachment to preserve the sample. If the state is so sure of its intoxilyzers, why don't they buy that attachment (it's not all that expensive) and provide the defendant with a sample for independant testing if he so chooses?

I agree, if you're impaired and you're driving, you deserve a stiff penalty, but if you're not inmpaired you should not be penalized. We can find out if someone is impaired through properly conducted field sobriety tests, and those actually test impairment rather than the ability to accurately assess a breath/blood sample.

 

I dont know how the state does it, Im in the military. But we have to get ours calibrated, I know that some things like chewing gum,cigs and other objects can cause it to have a false.. However we have make sure in the military that nothing is in this person's mouth for the past 15 mins before we can throw him/her on it. Other then that stuff i have never heard of it giving a false reading on somebody thats not drunk..but then again its not like i can tell someones BAC buy looking at them

 

The 15 minute observation period still won't correct the partition ratio (yes it's calibrated, but it's calibrated to assume a 2100:1 ratio to convert breath alcohol to blood alcohol, though for a given individual at a given time it can be 900:1 or 3000:1), issues with diabetics, issues with people on protein diets, issues with an overly long blow, etc.

Why not instead conduct the FSTs (and if the suspect is wearing high-heels get her to take them off first and step somewhere that isn't a sharp surface, heck maybe keep one-size-fits-most slippers in the trunk) and see if the person is actually impaired? The Intox results are treated like they're the Bible truth because it comes out of a magic electronic box, when they should be treated like just another test, at most.

BTW, military eh? You need to tell the folks in Washington to make sure the person who signs for the blood delivery has his name somewhere on the chain of custody, rofl. Oh, and I once mentioned on-base DUIs to my dad, he couldn't believe it, but then he was in the military in the 60s (and remembers it just being "you're in trouble, now go to bed")

 

There is a lot of poor/ bad/ misleading information in these two posts. You should do a lot more research before you start spouting off about the Intox 5000 cd-fg. Each state has a version, not all are exactly the same but they all operate on the same scientific theories.

 

So call it out with specificity then. I've said throughout that I'm not intimately familiar with VA, but from what I've read they seem to do it more or less the same as NC. Which things, exactly, are wrong. The only one I can think of that might be wrong is that VA doesn't have the attachment to preserve the sample, but a VA judge told me that is the case here. Well, that and the mouth alcohol error. I've seen this done. While the 15 minute observation period helps a lot, CMI pretends the Intox 5000 is immune to mouth alcohol, and if they're being disingenuous about that, what else are they being disingenuous about?). Not trying to be an ass, but I can only know what I learn from experience and reading, If something I have learned is wrong, I'd like to learn what is right. When talking about this stuff I usually remember to write that nothing I say is actual advice, but I failed to do that this time.

BTW, I'll be the first to say it, the Intox 5000 is right WAY more often than it is wrong, but I'm a fan of Blackstone's Ratio. And again, I think a cop who properly conducts the FSTs has a much higher hit rate than the magic box, so why do we value the blow more than the FSTs? (and before you bring up the ec/ir ii I don't think it to be any better)