Breathalyzers are BS

originally posted by: tinner07
a reply to: opethPA

So you didnt choose to have that first drink or the next one or the next one? This isnt about every crime.. This is about cowardly , selfish people that choose to drive drunk.

You are right. Kind of hard to defend myself isnt it...

I feel you. I'm 60 years old and drink like a fish. I don't drive after 3 beers, but after work, I have no problem opening a cold one. I know being an alcoholic is not good for me, but neither is stress, or 12 cups of coffee, but it's a little late in the game to change.

As a child of alcoholics, and a member of a family full of them, recovery programs can work if you want them to. It is a disease, but it can be controlled. I've seen it firsthand.

My father died a few months short of being 20 years sober, my mother is almost 25 years sober. I have aunts and uncles who have been sober over a decade.

Due to the knowledge that I am genetically predisposed to alcoholism, I watch my drinking carefully. I'll typically stop at 2 beers or a glass of whisky 95% of the time.

If I have more than one beer or any liquor while away from home, I won't drive. When you see the results of drunk driving firsthand, it kinda puts you off even risking it just a little.

originally posted by: opethPA

originally posted by: SummerRain

originally posted by: dug88

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
I can get up in the morning after downing a few shots of wild turkey, feeling as clear as day and at the top of my game and I'll blow .033...

You're drinking shots of whiskey in the morning and moaning about having a breathalyzer hardwired into your vehicle? Please tell me this is satire.

Ya I was kind of expecting some kind of punchline after that....it never came....

Also to the OP just don't you're gonna kill yourself or somebody else.

Where did the OP say that they drank anything in the morning?

3rd paragraph on the original post , "I can get up in the morning after downing a few shots of wild turkey, feeling as clear as day and at the top of my game and I'll blow .033"

So he has a few shots of wild turkey the night before, wakes up and feels clear as day. Car says No.
He has a number of beers the night before, wakes up feeling like hell, groggy, bleary eyed. Car says Go for it.

I think that was his point that you all seem to have missed.

I still don't see where he says he had anything in the morning right before getting in the car.

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

Dont listen to these self-righteous independence haters. Breathalyzers are complete bs. The entire process is bs in fact.

There is an ongoing investigation into the reliability of draeger breathalyzers.

They (law enforcement) can pull you over for literally anything, aka "reasonable suspicion"; This includes having a car freshener. They pull you over and they ask you out of the car. You ask for an attorney they tell you you are not under arrest. You tell them then you will be leaving and they tell you no, so in fact you are under arrest.

The field sobriety test is complete bs. There is no benchmark when you are issued and renew your license to determine how well you walk on a line like a super model, heel to toe, or how well you can tilt your head back and touch your nose with opposing hands while standing on one leg. Yet it's an acceptable field test? In any case they cannot correlate such a test to whether or not you were incapable of handling your vehicle.

The states dropped the max bac to .08 because they were coerced by the federal government at the risk of losing funding for highways back under Clinton. Yes, same Clinton that signed the omnibus crime act.

Even if you are found not guilty in district court, the DOT can revoke your license anyway in the civil suit because the burden of proof is only a preponderance of evidence.

Before your arraignment you are already receiving strongly worded letters from intox-a-lock vendors to install their devices or your court fines will be higher.

If they really cared about stopping people from drunk driving they would start by banning bars from having parking lots. The fact that you can drive there is tempting the consumer into committing a crime.

There is absolutely no way you could ever prove that taking a driver off the road saved any life. Any decrease in driving related deaths is most likely a result of better technology protecting the driver and not a factor of ones BAC.

This mark on a record can put people out of the running for employment. These people want to put you in jail or on probation where if you make one false move you will see jail. They want to keep you in the system. This is dollar signs to them. They dont give a shizz about the theoretical live(s) they cannot prove they saved.

Just give them your money and keep your mouth shut. Capische?

Flippin mafia runs this country anymore....

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: peter vlar

Right... because they just dole out interlock systems for first time offenders right? No, not right.

Yeah well, actually they do where I live... Some of the harshest penalties in the world from my understanding

Yep. In fact where I live you cannot get a deferrment on first offense unless you buy into this crap and pay sr22 for 18 months, and you must be below 2x limit.

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: opethPA

See how I said "get up in the morning after"?

Notice how I used the word 'after' and not 'then'?

I know, the english language can be hard to comprehend sometimes.

Great ..more power to you..you dont drink in the morning..

I'll own that fail on my part..

Unlike the weak people here claiming that driving drunk isnt a thing because blah blah blah

Next time you want to complain about how poor breathalyzers are I have 2 sets of parents that would love to hear from you. They have plenty of time to talk because a selfish, foolish drunk driver decided to run a red light and end the lives of their kids.

a reply to: drewlander


Or..dont drive while intoxicated then you dont have to deal with the man keeping you down.

a reply to: opethPA

Oh, and I forgot to add we are literally paying them to go out of their way to charge us with crimes to perpetuate the cycle.

originally posted by: schuyler
That's not what you said. You said:

I can get up in the morning after downing a few shots of wild turkey, feeling as clear as day and at the top of my game and I'll blow .033... but then wake up after drinking a heap of beer, feeling like the living dead, stumble down the stairs of my apartment and blow .000...WTF, right?

That right there tells me you need to have your license permanently jerked. And get some help. That's the behavior of a full blown alcoholic.

I understood him to mean that he could blow a .02 in the morning after having 2 shots of booze the night before.

originally posted by: schuyler

originally posted by: Liquesence

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa

originally posted by: schuyler
That's not what you said. You said:

I can get up in the morning after downing a few shots of wild turkey, feeling as clear as day and at the top of my game and I'll blow .033... but then wake up after drinking a heap of beer, feeling like the living dead, stumble down the stairs of my apartment and blow .000...WTF, right?

That right there tells me you need to have your license permanently jerked. And get some help. That's the behavior of a full blown alcoholic.

Maybe your right... But then maybe some people who don't consider themselves as "alcoholics" and enjoy a few glasses of wine in the evening should buy a breathalyzer, then test themselves in the morning on their way to work... I think they may be in for a surprise, when they catch a reading.

I doubt a few glasses of wine the night before will trigger a breathalyzer the next morning.

Correct. Basically a single drink takes an hour to metabolize back to a reading of zero, though your body weight can affect this This is established science. It's not "opinion."

Body weight can affect it and also a handful of other things can affect how fast a person metabolizes it. It's defintely not the exact same for everyone, and there are a myriad of factors that come into play to how fast an individual processes the alcohol in each instance. It's not going to be straight up an hour per drink, for example, each time, even for that one same person.

Established science.

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

This thread smells like alcohol!

originally posted by: opethPA

originally posted by: tinner07
I know all of you are holier than though.... never done a thing wrong.

Nope..far from holier than though but what i know is I haven't made the careless , selfish choice to drive drunk.
Sorry to hear you made the choice to be an alcoholic..Sorry to hear you dont see anything wrong in saying "I loved to drink a beer on my way home from work"

Lost 2 friends to cowardly drunk driver then 4 months later I was hit by yet another cowardly drunk driver.

If you make the choice to drive drunk once and get caught then you should never legally be allowed to drive again.

A person does not CHOOSE to be an alcoholic. They can choose to activate the disease, or worsen it, but a person can't UNCHOOSE to be an alcoholic.

They can choose to never activate the disease again (by not drinking), but they will always be an alcoholic. That part of it is not a choice.

So, if someone gets a DUI when they are 21, then you're saying they should never be able to drive again. Even if that person never drinks again?

What about recovering alcoholics? I someone has been sober for 30 years? Still no driving huh?

A couple of things I'd like to add here. Firstly being from the Ops state, you should know that in Victoria that once you fail a police breathalyzer test they take you back to the station where they perform an official blood test. If you pass the blood test, then you are free to go.

The breathalyzer is cheap(ish) compact equipment. Might not be super accurate, hence why they then do a blood test. Hopefully it picks up most of the scummy drunkards who think its ok to risk lives around them. I wish the sentences were harsher to be honest. I wish they could add a blood-test version to cars for better accuracy, but I'm sure there are good technical reasons why that isn't terribly feasible.

But Op is in a terrible position to be complaining from, I'll be thinking about them next time I'm in the car and honestly shudder.

originally posted by: tinner07
I know all of you are holier than though.... never done a thing wrong.

I have had a breathalyzer in my truck for several years... yes years. I'll tell you why....

I am an alcoholic. its a fact.
I love not drinking, but when I did, hard to stop. I got some dui's. never crashed, never hurt nobody but still.

My job can be very loud, messy , chaotic.... life at home could be the same. That hour drive from work to home was my time. I loved to drink a beer on my way home from work.

The breathalyzer in my truck spouts off stupid numbers now and then.... (not from drinking)but I am ready to get rid of it.... I could have petitioned to get rid of it like 2 years ago....

Michigander, eh? Let me be blunt.

You folks up here drive like s# bad enough to make the retired elderly New Yorkers all over the roads in Florida look like disciplined professional drivers. And your beloved booze in this state is 99% of the effing problem. I've seen more plastered morons behind the wheel up here than I have anywhere else, and that's not something to be proud of.

Put the goddamn booze & beer down, save it for home. And if you can't, call a cab or a sober buddy and be responsible. Your accident rates up here might drop like a stone and so might the ungodly sky-high insurance.

I am the idiot that got caught for 1 beer many years ago and it was enough to put me over the limit just , then 6 weeks after i got my license back boom caught again same thing just over the limit , total 4 years off the road and $ 2000 £ 1600 of fines .

Well it turns out i have a genetic condition that stops alcohol being broken down and 20+ % of people carry this Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency
Disease
Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is a genetic disorder that may result in lung disease or liver disease. Onset of lung problems is typically between 20 and 50 years old. This may result in shortness of breath, wheezing, or an increased risk of lung infections. Complications may include COPD, cirrhosis, neonatal jaundice, or panniculitis.

Most people would turn the bag as it is called the next morning if they only knew their dna , it is just a lottery they are getting away with due to numbers of drivers ,Alcohol in mouthwash ,food etc could put me over the limit where i live so i do get what the OP is saying

a reply to: drewlander

Agreed all these people are so moral hating on people on ATS. I've had a DUI had 3 beers spaced out blew .O1 over which cost me bout $6000+. Blew clean once made me blow again got a DUI. Learning experience for sure. Cop didn't even calibrate his blower because he borrowed it from another officer.

At AA she told me something that made me feel better "just about everyone's done it once not everyone gets caught"

I think the problem is that there isn't such a thing as a drinking license. Get it free with your first driver's license. Lose it on your first drinking offense with a $10,000 reinstatement fee. Lose it a second time and there won't be a third. $1000 fines and jail time if you're found drunk every time. $1000 fines to the server that gives or sells you drinks without a license.

Problem solved.

originally posted by: Qumulys
A couple of things I'd like to add here. Firstly being from the Ops state, you should know that in Victoria that once you fail a police breathalyzer test they take you back to the station where they perform an official blood test. If you pass the blood test, then you are free to go.

No, they don't take you back to the station for a blood test... which is fortunate, because if any copper even attempted to stick me with a needle, then I'd be doing 25 to life right now!

In reality, what they do is take you back to the police station where they have a breathalyzer device, which is apparently far more accurate than the portable breathalyzers they use for roadside testing... You could probably demand to go to the the hospital for a blood test instead... But i can assure that the police aren't conducting any mandatory blood testing themselves.

But Op is in a terrible position to be complaining from, I'll be thinking about them next time I'm in the car and honestly shudder.

Why would you "shudder" on my account?

My car won't even start, if I even take a sip of beer... lol.

a reply to: Qumulys

You only get blood tested if you're in an accident, and that is also to test for other substances, the only other way is to request a blood test and if there is a blood test done it is done in a hospital, I'm not sure where you got your info from but it's not right.