FAULTY BREATHALYZER
There are many good resons why the breath test is a good idea and should be continued being used by law enforcement officers. They ensure public safety, provide an instant accurate reading, and reduce the amount of drunk drivers on the road. However, this test is not always accurate, can be affected by outside factors, and can be harmful to the public. Thus it is unjust to have a presumably drunk driver take the test. As a result, the use of the breath test should be suspended until it can be made more consistent in it's accurate readings, also reliable, as well as stricter rules on how and who calibrates the tester. There are several instances in which the breath tester has failed to give accurate readings. An incident occurred in one case that involved Dave Debusschere and DWI. He was arrested in Long Island in July of 1986 after taking a breath analyzer test voluntarily. His results were a BAC of .16%. It was ar
gued that the Breathalyzer used was "antiquated, unreliable and capable of being calibrated incorrectly." The Breathalyzer evidence was ignored and he was found not guilty. Attorney Richard Essen and his staff handle about 1,000 DWI cases annually. He attacks the reliability of the breath analyzer and advises that all subjects be aware of its possible inaccuracies. This particular case exemplifies the possible faults which a tester can posses. Tests have been done to determine the validity of the breath tester. "Peer reviewed and uncontested studies (LaBianca, Simpson, Thompson et.al.) prove a margin of error of 50 % when comparing breath test estimates of Blood alcohol content to actual Blood alcohol content! That means a breathalyzer reading of .1 % represents a Blood alcohol content level somewhere between .05 % and .15%, hardly a level of precision on which to base an irrefutable presumption of guilt!" Many peopl
Some common words found in the essay are:
Richard Essen, , Jay Zimmerman, Simpson Thompson, Constable Robinson, Island July, David Zurfluh, breath test, blood alcohol, alcohol content, breath analyzer, Bill Robinson, Debusschere DWI, blood alcohol content, found guilty, harmful public, accurate readings, breath tester, tried eat,
Approximate Word count = 622
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
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