The Intoximeter 3000

The following excerpt about breath testing is taken from a portion of Chapter 5 from The Georgia DUI Defense Trial Practice Manual, © 1996 William C. Head. The reader should understand that the material provided is in no way comprehensive, but outlines certain legal attacks on breath testing. Historically, many breath tests (and some refusals) have been excluded prior to trial on other grounds other than the ones mentioned in the excerpt.

5.1.1. The Intoximeter 3000

The Intoximeter 3000 infrared breath testing device was commissioned in Georgia in 1982. It is presently not in use, having been decommissioned on December 31, 1994. In addition, with the passage of HB 610, which modified O.C.G.A. § 40-6-392 and was applicable to all pending cases, no Intoximeter 3000 test results should be admissible in court any longer. Hence, little discussion of the Intoximeter 3000 will be had in this chapter nor in the remainder of this book. In 1996, the machine is little more than a historic footnote.

A patent application for a Method and Apparatus For Measuring Breath Alcohol was filed on January 26, 1981 by Donald Hutson. On December 14, 1982, United States patent number 4,363,635 was issued for the instrument which subsequently has been manufactured by Intoximeters, Inc., of St. Louis, Missouri and marketed under the trade name Intoximeter 3000. Three (3) subsequent models have been developed and marketed: Intoximeter 3000 (B1), Intoximeter 3000 (B2) and Intoximeter 3000 (B2A) and apparently share the same patent.

The Photo-Electric Intoximeter (Model 300 or 400), the Gas Chromatograph Intoximeter (MARK IV or MARK IVA), and the Auto-Intoximeter, all manufactured by Intoximeters, Inc., were still approved evidential breath-alcohol testing instruments in Georgia until December 31, 1994, when they were decommissioned, too.

Today, the only evidential breath alcohol instrument approved for use in Georgia for obtaining chemical sobriety tests in accordance with O.C.G.A. § 40-6-392 is the Intoxilyzer 5000, series 768GA.