ALCOHOL BREATH TEST MACHINE’S ACCURACY DISPUTED NATIONALLY

Atlanta, GA -- June 14, 1996 -- Once used as an indisputable technique for convicting people suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol or DUI / DWI, alcohol breath analyzing machine’s results, like Georgia’s Intoxilyzer 5000, are being thrown out and considered inadmissible as evidence by some judges.

Recently in Georgia a judge dismissed evidence from a alcohol breath analyzing machine, the Intoxilyzer 5000, calling it “insufficient”. The report in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution said that Hart County Municipal Judge Frank George last month acquitted a driver who had registered above the legal limit on the breath test, saying he believes the test alone is not sufficient evidence of drunken driving.

“This case in Atlanta has set a long overdo precedent in our court system and is something we are going to see happening shortly nationally,” says nationally recognized DUI / DWI defense attorney William C. "Bubba" Head.

Further reports indicate ineffective monitoring of the machines by police forces, and other personal variable when the test is being administered can seriously impact the results of such a test.

For example dental work such as plates or bridge work, consumption of antibiotics, diet pills, and even M&M candy and white bread can cause alcohol breath analyzing machines to register as much as a .08, putting a person over the legal drinking limit without the presence of alcohol says Head, who is also founder of the Drinking Driver’s Defense Network (DDDN).

Head reports that he has been successful in excluding breath test results in 100% of his breath analyzer test cases since January of 1995.

“The accuracy and reliability of breath testing is a growing issue of concern nationally and really needs to be looked into by our state officials," he says.