Breathyliser accuracy

Dolby

Dolby

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I went to a wedding on Saturday and I know the road is notorius for road blocks due the number of wedding venues in the area. For this reason, I had 3 glasses of champage and 2 Heinkens from 16:00 - 20:30 ... and stopped drinking thereafter.

As luck would have it, the road block was setup and they pulled me over to test me. Having my last beer an hour before, I figured I'd be safe - but slightly worried as one never knows.

I blow ... and get a 0.00 and told I can go. I thought that odd - but left and went to bed.

The following day I checked Google for accuracy (under/over reading) and I see there are quite a few factors that over/under read - temperature and breathing patterns are a big one. In Australia, I see they give a 20% leniancy due to the accuracy.

Just wondering - in South Africa can a breathyliser be used in court? Or is it simply a way to 'guess' and draw blood?
 
When it says 00.0 it means they have broken it. It has happened to a few friends I know.

They are supposed to do a full reset of the device and then try again. Also they can't use the reading in court, they have to take you for blood tests after you fail the breathalyser, it needs to be done within a certain amount of time as well. Its quite hard to get a conviction.
 
How those hormones, blunomore? ;)

@ nerf - thanks ... I was expecting a reading of some sort and when I read about the inaccuracies overseas, I wondered whether that was enough for a conviction.
 
It takes about 2 hours for your body to metabolize a unit of alcohol. So depending on what time you got pulled over you may not have even been over the limit.
You had 5 unit so at about 2 AM they would have been all gone and the breathalyser useless. The legal limit is 2 units so you would have been good to drive at 10.
 
I knew I wasn't over the limit (though - I was nervous) as the last beer was about an hour before ... but I'd have thought it would pick up something.
 
Breathalysers do not stand up in court, it MUST be a blood test. No blood test no go, sorry for you officer!
 
Dolby said:
I knew I wasn't over the limit...
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You probably were over the limit.

Those things are not to accurate.

We once did a test thing with that company that make those saches of Sober(?) and the local traffic department was on hand to test us at regular intervals and we drank (the booze was sponsored). They had 3 machines with them. One beer and I was over the limit, my mate that's a sack of flyschit was still fine after 5 beers. One guy was so pissed he was swaying and his score came back as 0.0.

I'm schit scared of those things as I could be stone cold and might get busted.
 
I wonder how many innocent people get thrown into the back of the van due to these breathalyser jobbies
 
Koosi said:
I wonder how many innocent people get thrown into the back of the van due to these breathalyser jobbies
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Would be interesting to know.

One guys wife drove them home after a braai as he had to much to drink, she had one glass of wine. She got busted and the ordeal they had was terrible. The blood tests came back fine though.
 
Yes has to be blood test. I know someone who got a similar breathalyzer result...except he was barely standing and blew a 0.0.

Also note that those sketchy fckrs try to extort money from people by quoting the wrong alcohol amounts (different numbers depending on whether its breathalyser or blood). So even if you're all good they pretend they're gonna throw you in jail and ask for a spot fine.

@Dolby: Thats some crazy luck there 'cause you would have flunked the hell out of that test. 1 hour is not enough to clear ~4 units....not even close.

ponder said:
I'm schit scared of those things as I could be stone cold and might get busted.
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I'm scared of the blood test. I'm cool with needles...just not the kind you get in gov hospitals at 1AM.

I like the German system better...they take blood at regular intervals & can extrapolate the level @ time of driving pretty accurately from the series of samples. Also no scary needles & prison cells.
 
I left at 21:30 ... I seriously didn't think a beer at 19:00 and another at 20:30 was enough to put me over the limit :/

The first should have been mostly metabolised by the time I had the 2nd - and the 2nd should've been metabolized by the time I left. If not, I'd never have thought it was enough to put me over the limit.

Plus I never intended to leave at 21:30
 
Dolby said:
I left at 21:30 ... I seriously didn't think a beer at 19:00 and another at 20:30 was enough to put me over the limit :/

The first should have been mostly metabolised by the time I had the 2nd - and the 2nd should've been metabolized by the time I left. If not, I'd never have thought it was enough to put me over the limit.

Plus I never intended to leave at 21:30
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You were willing to risk your bum hole on that? Boy i would rather go drop my salary on black than chance my luck in a road in block with should have.
 
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