Sometimes machines make mistakes. Breathalyzers are not perfect. In order to determine the amount of alcohol in your blood from the amount of alcohol on your breath, scientists create a conversion similar to the type of conversion that you have to perform when determining how many miles you have traveled based on how many kilometers you have traveled. There are certain pitfalls to this conversion and the method used to test the breath for alcohol. In this article, we will discuss those pitfalls and why you should not plead guilty even if the police officer told you that you were over the legal limit. Learn how an experienced DUI attorney in Fort Wayne can neutralize breathalyzer evidence in court.
Breath tests deliver immediate results, but blood tests are the only accurate way to determine a driver’s blood alcohol content. Since the blood is never tested in a breathalyzer test, we can only know to a scientific certainty what your breath alcohol levels are.
Can you just convert breath alcohol content to blood alcohol content like you would kilometers and miles?
No. There are a number of things that can lower your blood alcohol content while not impacting your breath alcohol content at all. Conversely, there are some things that can impact your breath alcohol content without affecting the amount of alcohol in your bloodstream.
Alcohol enters through your mouth and is then processed throughout your body. Some percentage of the alcohol will make it into your lungs and this is what the breathalyzer measures. But this amount is always less than the total amount of alcohol processed by your body since some escapes in other ways. In order to make the conversion work, the police will double your breath alcohol to produce your blood alcohol. This is all a bit of a mathematical fiddle.
There are a number of ways.
Firstly, some folks, due to dietary habits, have a high amount of acetone on their breath. This is especially true of those on “keto” diets. The breathalyzer will read acetone as alcohol and then double that amount to deliver your BAC.
Secondly, a breathalyzer test does not take into account body weight or other factors that can reduce your BAC even if you have had a lot to drink. As an example, eating can lower your BAC, but it will not lower your BrAC (at least not for some time).
Just because you blew higher than a .08 on your Breathalyzer test does not mean you were operating your vehicle over the legal limit. Before you agree to anything, talk to the Fort Wayne DUI attorneys at The Bellinger Law Office to learn more about how we can help.