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With all the automatic, self calibrating devices that are in use these days I think it is quite possible to have a "police proof" accurate breath tester. Press GO, blow into machine, get printout. If the machine is not happy it prints out why. Cant be that difficult. Car engines monitor and adjust themselves thousands of times a second. Of course the easy answer is known to all, Dont drink a..........
Edited by Old Navy on 16/03/2009 at 09:15
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...I think it is quite possible to have a "police proof" accurate breath tester. Press GO, blow into machine, get printout. If the machine is not happy it prints out why....
Yep, it's called a CAMIC and it's installed in a police station near you.
Edited by ifithelps on 16/03/2009 at 11:09
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Yep it's called a CAMIC and it's installed in a police station near you.
Thanks ifit, only seen them on TV and that will be as close as I get if I have anything to do with it!
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what a load of complete tosh that Daily Wail article is...not even researched the facts enough to know the difference bewteeen a Screening Breath Test (the one on the street, which if you fail you're arrested to investigate the offence)..and the Evidential Breath Test (the one done at the station which is considerably more accurate than the roadside one and if you fail you are charged with the offence).
Fullchat has covered the angle nicely with the lawyer's comments...there's nothing to get wrong....type in some personal details, allow the machine to calibrate itself, if within correct limits get person to blow (twice) down tube, following the on screen instructions.. if not..revert to doctor and blood. Rip off paper print out and keep as evidence...what is there to get wrong about that?
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Is a lot of the circumstantial evidence that cough mixture etc causes false readings true, or simply urban legend.
Simple answer is that if you're going to drive, you don't drink at all. Too many people seem to think it's fine to have a pint or two and be just under or about the limit. Despite many of the misconceptions, I don't know anyone* in my age range (early 20's) who'd even consider driving after having a drink.
If someone chooses to have a drink and then gets caught for drink driving, it doesn't bother me. I can't see how one of these machines could screw up its measurement, though I suppose they could always go back to the green crystals...
* Well, one person - but he's an idiot.
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I dealt with a case where a driver got rammed by a Police car (to stop him) - he was high on Benalyn. Never coughed 'awt though. He was convicted.
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I failed a roadside breathalyser years ago and was arrested on suspicion of drink driving.
I passed the CAMIC in the station, twice, and was given the printout as a souvenir.
As Westpig says, the roadside machine is merely an aid to the officer when investigating a possible crime, it cannot convict.
The roadside polis could equally say: "Your words are slurred and you stink of drink, so I am arresting you on suspicion of drink driving."
Once again, you are not charged unless and until you fail the CAMIC, or one of the other recognised tests.
I imagine most people who fail the roadside test go on to fail the CAMIC, but that is a separate point.
As for me, I could have moaned at being arrested for a crime I did not do, but I took my little trip to the station - in the back of a police van smelling equally of vomit and disinfectant - as a warning.
The lift I got back to my car from the police afterwards was much more pleasant - front passenger seat of the same van.
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Another tin foil around head rant. As already mentioned, the legal limit is 35. You have to blow 40 in the nick before the process starts. Under 40 and you get a lift home or back to your car.
Shouldn't you start your own 'Woe is us' forum Mr X and leave the rest of us to get on with it.
(And if you suddenly decide you've got some awful 'needle' disease, then you're given a little pot to fill)
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the reverting to a blood option if someone blows between 40 and 49 inclusive is only of use to a miscreant if the doctor takes an absolute age....because the breath sample is given extra leeway before prosecution i.e. 35 is the legal limit broken, but there's no prosecution until 40 is blown, so 35,36,37,38 and 39 are a technically a 'fail' but there's no prosecution (in most forces)....however, with the blood option there's no leeway 80 = fail, 79 = pass
so if you blow 40 and think "I only just failed"....you haven't, you're 6 over, but only 1 over for prosecuting
p.s. i think what we've got now is about right, we don't need lower limits... and neither do we need more powers to stop people
35 (40 for a prosecution) with breath or 80 for blood, is roughly 2 to 2.5 pints of normal lager for an adult male of proportionate size (although i'd concede the numerous variables for fitness, food intake, alcohol tolerance, etc)... those people i.e. 2 pints or less are not the ones that need targeting or are the ones causing the accidents...it's the clowns having a skin full and then driving....so why penalise the generally law abiding, when it's the people who'd ignore any limit that are causing the problems
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If there were only 100 drink drivers a year collared and they were all only a fraction over the legal limit, after a few years of this the govt would feel obliged to have a ' crack down '.
It is something to do with their obsession about seeing Zero numbers for things. As Mr Pig has pointed out, 'p.s. i think what we've got now is about right, we don't need lower limits... and neither do we need more powers to stop people'
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I think that that is the view of the Criminal Justice community.
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A question, if I may. Here, and in Australia, we have mobile laboratories { known generically as booze buses } which are part of the random roadblock method of testing all drivers for the demon drink. Fail the breath test, and, if the driver calls for it , such as maybe just over the breath tester limit, into the booze bus for instant blood withdrawal. No chance for time to sober up sufficiently.
Does U.K. have such vehicles, or is it entirely " Back to the Cop Shop" ??
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Does U.K. have such vehicles or is it entirely " Back to the Cop Shop" ??
No....however, the delay for a doctor can advantage someone (if a very long delay)..or disadvantage someone, depending on whether they are burning off the alcohol or it's still going into the system....
e.g. they blow a breath reading and pass....but in half an hour's time they'd be over the limit.
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Ten years ago, place de la Bastille, Paris, saw a breathalyser bus pulling cars. But it was the cars that were being breathalysed, not their drivers.
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Wonder how this law would be implemented in Scotland, where we have a requirement for corroboration - i.e. an evidential (second) test is mandatory to provide corroborated evidence
Also, in Scotland, you cannot be arrested "on suspicion".
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As Mr Pig has pointed out 'p.s. i think what we've got now is about right.
His name is WESTpig.
MD
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His name is WESTpig.
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Seconded, and I value his opinion more than some other X rated contibutors.
Edited by Old Navy on 20/03/2009 at 22:08
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As I post here only to offer my opinion or viewpoint, I have no need of them being ' valued "
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" he was high on Benalyn. Never coughed 'awt though."
boom boom tish!
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