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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT DUI IN Fort Meade
State Administered Tests of Blood, Breath, and Urine The police are allowed to ask a driver to submit to a State administered chemical test if the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the driver is operating a moving vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. In addition, the Legislature has determined that any person who operates a moving vehicle in this state has given consent to have a blood, breath, urine, or test of other bodily substances to determine if he or she is under the influence of alcohol. Once you are arrested for DUI, an officer should read the implied consent warning. This warning advises you of the consequences of taking a test and gives you the option of refusing a test. In addition, the warning advises you of your right to your own chemical test once you take the State test. Contrary to public opinion, the law does not give people the right to an attorney prior to taking a test.
Breath Tests For DUI in Fort Meade If asked to take a breath test at the police station or jail, you will be tested on the Intoxilyzer 5000 machine. This is the only machine approved for use in Georgia. The Intoxilyzer 5000 works by measuring wave lengths of light. It measures the degree that alcohol absorbs infared light. The more alcohol present the greater the absorption of light and the higher the level of alcohol.
Problems With Breath Testing: The Intoxilyzer 5000 is a machine and is subject to error. For example, if a person gives a breath test of 0.10 grams on their first try, the next test will be valid if it is as low as 0.08 or as high as 0.120 grams. The range is + or - .02 grams or more. That is a huge leeway in order for a test to be valid. To bring it closer to home: Would you feel comfortable if I told you that ten people were going out on a boat and the law required me to have a life jacket for each of them. However, the law gave me some leeway and told me that it would be o.k. if I had anywhere between 8 and 12 jackets on the boat. Would you feel comfortable getting on that ship? There are numerous things that can affect a breath test such as proximity to electronics that emit radio waves, like police walkie-talkies. These items should be turned off when in the room where the Intoxilyzer test takes place. The machine if properly working should detect any radio interference. A person's physical condition, or exposure to certain substances, may also cast doubt onto the accuracy of the Intoxilyzer 5000. Some forms of diabetes, hernias, gastric reflux, or other illnesses may yield inaccurate results on a breath test. In addition, exposure to certain chemicals like acetone may result in an inaccurate breath alcohol test result. Further, some diets like high protein diets may impact a breath test. The machines are only tested four times a year in Georgia. In some states, there is the ability to save the breath sample for re-testing. However, Georgia has chosen not to have this feature on its machine. Although our breath machine has a filter that should eliminate interfering substances such as toluene, acetaldehyde, and acetone, from a breath test, routine inspection only includes testing for acetone filtration. Moreover, there is nobody in Georgia who can repair a broken machine. Rather, the machine must be packed and shipped to the factory for repair. The officer who gave the breath test has generally only been through a sixteen hour course to administer tests. They do not know much more than how to turn the machine on and off. However, following recent court decisions, it is highly likely that the breath test will be admitted into evidence at trial. Therefore, it may be necessary to hire an expert to testify and educate the jury about the deficiencies in the breath test. It may be likely that there were some problems with a breath test. If there were, a good lawyer should be able to attack the result.
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