# Breathalizer test **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 8, 2013, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919 "2013-07-08T06:07:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/61 "2013-07-10T20:02:11Z")
> [@lawbuff](#): > > Unless it was a defacto SC, such random stops are UNconstitutional. true enough - ‘random’ was not the proper choice of words - more like ‘extremely minor’ reasons any other time of the day - but late at nite, near a bar - plenty of reason to stop. ---
**Author:** ![lawbuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/62 "2013-07-10T20:06:09Z")
> [@simster](#): > > true enough - ‘random’ was not the proper choice of words - more like ‘extremely minor’ reasons any other time of the day - but late at nite, near a bar - plenty of reason to stop. As long as a legal reason exists, an officer’s subjective intentions for the pull over, except to profile, are Constitutional. They can go fishing as long as the car provides the initial bait. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/63 "2013-07-10T20:07:02Z")
> [@simster](#): > > You really don’t get it - or you are being argumentative for no reason. I’m going for 18-23 years old, single, slight build but not quite metro, and unsure how to handle having his backside verbally handed to him by a salty, street-weary, rye-drinking, old-school copper. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/64 "2013-07-10T20:08:43Z")
> [@matt357](#): > > I don’t know about that. My sister was driving home from a bar, they stopped her car a few streets away for unknown reasons. They gave her a breathalyzer, she blew under the legal limit and they let her go. She was not given a traffic ticket either. She is in NY state. Well, there’s the Intoxilyzer, which is a big heavy machine that runs off a power cord plugged into the wall, and there’s something they call a PBT, which is a little hand-held device. The PBT is not admissible in court, but the police are free to use it in the field if they want. But I was talking about the Intoxilyzer results. Your sister was probably talking about a PBT. ---
**Author:** ![matt357](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@matt357](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt357)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/65 "2013-07-10T21:16:09Z")
> [@simster](#): > > You really don’t get it - or you are being argumentative for no reason. > > If you are ‘otherwise fine’ and blow below the limit - they have NO REASON to arrest you. > > If you are driving impaired - they can arrest you regaurdless of your breathalyzer ‘score’ or your pass/fail of the test. > > I call it a ‘sobriety checkpoint’ as in the cops set up within a couple of blocks from bars and watch for drivers and are known to stop them at random - it serves two purposes - > > a) lets others know they are in the area - discourages others > b) catches a few in the process > > She likely did do something that caught thier atteniton - but was minor enough, as already alluded to in earlier posts, like rolling a stop sign - that it did not warrant any further action. Clearly you didn’t watch the video I posted because the girl they arrested for DUI was " ‘otherwise fine’ ---
**Author:** ![matt357](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@matt357](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt357)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/66 "2013-07-10T21:18:58Z")
[QUOTE=matt357] Like I said post a link to someone who had been convicted. [/QUOTE] > [@Oakminster](#): > > No. Can’t be bothered. I practice law, including DUI defense, for a living. If that’s not enough for you, you’ll just have to keep on being wrong. That’s because you can’t find any. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/67 "2013-07-10T21:21:18Z")
> [@matt357](#): > > Clearly you didn’t watch the video I posted because the girl they arrested for DUI was " ‘otherwise fine’ I watched the video more than long enough - a) they cut out the line walking part - it skips from “lets try this again, 9 full steps” to where b) she lost her balance during the hold your leg up and cout stage and as I stated before - there are many other things they check for during that test OTHER than just the mere ability to perform the physical feats. Since she was arrested (and presumably charged) the arresting officer saw things YOU did not see, so her ‘appearance’ is irrelivant. Have a pleasant day. ---
**Author:** ![matt357](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@matt357](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt357)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/68 "2013-07-10T21:23:22Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > No. Can’t be bothered. I practice law, including DUI defense, for a living. If that’s not enough for you, you’ll just have to keep on being wrong. > [@simster](#): > > I watched the video more than long enough - > > a) they cut out the line walking part - it skips from “lets try this again, 9 full steps” to where > b) she lost her balance during the hold your leg up and cout stage > > and as I stated before - there are many other things they check for during that test OTHER than just the mere ability to perform the physical feats. > > Since she was arrested (and presumably charged) the arresting officer saw things YOU did not see, so her ‘appearance’ is irrelivant. > > Have a pleasant day. I would lose my balance during the hold your leg up and count stage while sober. And it shows her walking a line perfectly well, not stumbling , not slurring. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/69 "2013-07-10T21:27:36Z")
> [@matt357](#): > > I would lose my balance during the hold your leg up and count stage while sober. And it shows her walking a line perfectly well, not stumbling , not slurring. The video does not show the final 18 step line walk - it is either edited or incomplete. ETA - just rewatched - the video jumps about 30 seconds = from 29:28 to 30:05. You are being willfully ignorant and argumentative - what part of “There are other things the officer is checkng for that you cannot see in the video” do you not understand? The performance of the physical ‘tricks’ during the test are a small part of the entire check. You still have failed to address post 41 - Deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/70 "2013-07-10T21:32:55Z")
> [@matt357](#): > > Yes I have responded to it and you never responded back. I’m not looking to argue with you, just get my questions answered accurately. I’m talking about **pkbites** post where he mentions people that he personally arrested (he’s a cop) who blew less than the legal limit but were successfully prosecuted. ---
**Author:** ![matt357](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@matt357](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt357)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/71 "2013-07-10T21:38:15Z")
> [@simster](#): > > The video does not show the final 18 step line walk - it is either edited or incomplete. > > ETA - just rewatched - the video jumps about 30 seconds = from 29:28 to 30:05. > > You are being willfully ignorant and argumentative - what part of > > “There are other things the officer is checkng for that you cannot see in the video” > > do you not understand? > > The performance of the physical ‘tricks’ during the test are a small part of the entire check. > > You still have failed to address post 41 - > > Deal with it. It seems very obvious you can’t accept she was arrested wrongly. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/72 "2013-07-10T21:39:41Z")
> [@matt357](#): > > It seems very obvious you can’t accept she was arrested wrongly. Cite? any evidence of that other than your opinion of watching an edited video on youtube? And I’ve not said anything to the correctness of her arrest - only that your argument that she was arrested ‘wrongly’ based on that video is woefully mis-informed. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/73 "2013-07-10T21:54:19Z")
> [@matt357](#): > > I’m not looking to argue with you, just get my questions answered accurately. Your questions have been answered accurately. You just don’t like the answers. You can not like them all you want, doesn’t make them any less accurate. That video you linked is missing some things. There seems to be some skips. Also, there is no way of knowing if there was any strong odor of intoxicants. That observation is another point of evidence in a DUI/OWI prosecution. Odor of intoxicants, HGN test, and the fact that she failed to follow directions all point to arrest. But I can’t base anything on that chopped up piece of shit you linked to. Also, I want to get something clear. You understand that the PBT (Portable Breath Test) that is used in the field, and the Intoxilyzer breath test are not the same thing, correct? Let me state one more time: on occasion I have pulled people over for various reasons, noticed slurred speech, glassy eyes, and odor of intoxicates, performed a field sobriety test on them which they failed, and arrested them for driving while intoxicated. They submitted to a blood test and when the blood work came back from the state crime lab it showed a level below the legal level of intoxication. Based on the other evidence the District Attorneys office dropped the driving while intoxicated charge and charged driving while impaired. The subjects were prosecuted, and convicted. Admittedly it doesn’t happen a lot that peoples blood/breath/urine comes back below the limit, but it does happen. Now that I have posted once again that it does happen, and I have been the arresting officer when it does happen, either believe it or have the guts to call me a liar! ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/74 "2013-07-10T21:58:34Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > That video you linked is missing some things. There seems to be some skips. Also, there is no way of knowing if there was any strong odor of intoxicants. That observation is another point of evidence in a DUI/OWI prosecution. Odor of intoxicants, HGN test, and the fact that she failed to follow directions all point to arrest. But I can’t base anything on that chopped up piece of shit you linked to. HGN test? From the non-drinker civilian POV, I don’t care what the number on the test is. If someone’s driving badly enough to attract police attention, thus demonstrating impairment, they need to be off the road! ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/75 "2013-07-10T22:03:04Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > HGN test? > > From the non-drinker civilian POV, I don’t care what the number on the test is. If someone’s driving badly enough to attract police attention, thus demonstrating impairment, they need to be off the road! Driving badly enough to attract police attention is only one aspect. Lots of people drive like shit and are sober. I was talking about building a case to justify arrest/prosecution. These things matter more than emotional observation and the more of them collected the better. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/76 "2013-07-10T22:05:17Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > HGN test? > **[Nystagmus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathologic_nystagmus#Alcohol)** > > Nystagmus is a condition of involuntary (or voluntary, in some cases) eye movement. People can be born with it but more commonly acquire it in infancy or later in life. In many cases it may result in reduced or limited vision. > In normal eyesight, while the head rotates about an axis, distant visual images are sustained by rotating eyes in the opposite direction of the respective axis. The semicircular canals in the vestibule of the ear sense angular acceleration, and send signals to the nuclei... The LEO is looking for telltale eye movements that indicated alcohol consumption. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/77 "2013-07-10T22:09:39Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > HGN test? > > From the non-drinker civilian POV, I don’t care what the number on the test is. If someone’s driving badly enough to attract police attention, thus demonstrating impairment, they need to be off the road! Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus When you follow the pen tip with your eyes. The way your eyeballs move is an indication of being under the influence. Damn, gotta type faster. ---
**Author:** ![matt357](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@matt357](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt357)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/78 "2013-07-10T22:11:21Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Your questions have been answered accurately. You just don’t like the answers. > You can not like them all you want, doesn’t make them any less accurate. > > That video you linked is missing some things. There seems to be some skips. Also, there is no way of knowing if there was any strong odor of intoxicants. That observation is another point of evidence in a DUI/OWI prosecution. Odor of intoxicants, HGN test, and the fact that she failed to follow directions all point to arrest. But I can’t base anything on that chopped up piece of shit you linked to. > > Also, I want to get something clear. You understand that the PBT (Portable Breath Test) that is used in the field, and the Intoxilyzer breath test are not the same thing, correct? > > Let me state one more time: on occasion I have pulled people over for various reasons, noticed slurred speech, glassy eyes, and odor of intoxicates, performed a field sobriety test on them which they failed, and arrested them for driving while intoxicated. They submitted to a blood test and when the blood work came back from the state crime lab it showed a level below the legal level of intoxication. Based on the other evidence the District Attorneys office dropped the driving while intoxicated charge and charged driving while impaired. The subjects were prosecuted, and convicted. Admittedly it doesn’t happen a lot that peoples blood/breath/urine comes back below the limit, but it does happen. > > Now that I have posted once again that it does happen, and I have been the arresting officer when it does happen, either believe it or have the guts to call me a liar! Someone who had one drink will have the “odor of intoxicates” ---
**Author:** ![matt357](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@matt357](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt357)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/79 "2013-07-10T22:14:47Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus > > When you follow the pen tip with your eyes. The way your eyeballs move is an indication of being under the influence. > Damn, gotta type faster. Nystagmus can be caused by alcohol, and also 39 other natural things, some people have it all the time due to genetics it also is triggered by flashing lights like on a police car. This video explains it [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj4mWkNvq3c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj4mWkNvq3c) ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919/80 "2013-07-10T22:18:18Z")
Nystagmus =/= impaired Breath =/= impaired Difficulty with balance =/= impaired Failure to do the A,B,Cs backwards =/= impaired Poor driving =/= impaired Put them all together and the good bet is you’re getting a free ride downtown. Are you wondering where the line is drawn? How many tests need to be failed? What are ya getting at? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathalizer-test/662919.md?page=5)