Reader’s Question:

I heard from the people I know who have been arrested for DUI here in Louisville, Kentucky that a breath test is inaccurate. Could you explain why a breath test is unreliable?

Caitlin

Louisville, KY

Once a person arrested for DUI is taken to the police station, he/she would be asked to take the most common test in a DUI arrest which is the breath test. But the breath test, as you mentioned, is highly susceptible to error, and thus considered to be inaccurate. It would not accurately measure the blood alcohol level of the person arrested if the breath test is not taken just right. A good DUI lawyer in Louisville, Kentucky could be able to persuade the judge to throw out the breath test evidence. The main reason for the inaccuracy of the breath test is that, while it is supposed to measure how much alcohol is in the lungs, any residual alcohol in the mouth would result in a mistakenly high reading.

One other factor that could make the breath test unreliable could be the temperature of the person’s breath. The breath test would work on the assumption that the person’s breath is 34 degrees centigrade. Studies done with the breath test machine have shown that the real average breath temperature for people who have been arrested for DUI is closer to 35.5, with some as high as 37. That alone may mean that the result of the breath test would be between 10 and 20 percent higher than it really is.

Tags: breath test, DUI, DUI arrest, DUI lawyer