Cars

DWI Driving While Intoxicated
DUI Driving Under the Influence of alcohol or drugs
BAC Blood Alcohol Concentration or Content

These three acronyms form a deadly combination The main links between the three are alcohol and driving It is well doc
DWI Driving While Intoxicated
DUI Driving Under the Influence of alcohol or drugs
BAC Blood Alcohol Concentration or Content

These three acronyms form a deadly combination The main links between the three are alcohol and driving It is well documented that drinking alcohol impairs judgment slows reaction time and decreases coordination When a person is DWI or DUI he or she is piloting a oneton time bomb with little control over it Is it speeding towards you

These three acronyms have legal ramifications too DUI and DWI are criminal offenses To determine if a DWI or DUI offense has been committed it is necessary to measure how much alcohol was consumed by the suspect driver the BAC

In the field police officers utilize tests to determine the amount of a drivers impairment due to alcohol Such tests include but are not limited to breath alcohol tests and field sobriety tests The breath test is further discussed in this article

A persons reaction to alcohol varies widely Some factors that affect alcohol impairment include gender body weight time of last meal time of day alcohol tolerance medications genetics rate of alcohol consumption and many more

A police officer stopping a suspected drunk driver has visual olfactory smell and breath tests to judge a persons impairment from alcohol The officer must make some kind of quantitative determination of the amount of alcohol impairment at the time of the stop All the factors mentioned above do not matter to the officer All he or she wants to do is to create a snapshot of the degree of impairment

Blood alcohol concentration BAC is a measure of the amount of alcohol in the blood expressed as a percentage by volume This can be measured precisely by taking a sample of the drivers blood for analysis In the US a BAC level of 008 commonly written as 08 or more is considered illegal However the officer on patrol certainly doesnt have a medical lab in the car and must rely on a breath testing device

The brand name Breathalyzer is often used generically to describe devices that measure blood alcohol concentration This type of breath analyzer does not actually measure the concentration of alcohol in the blood Instead the reading on the breath analyzer is only an estimate of the alcohol in the blood

Correlations between the amount of alcohol in the blood and the resulting amount of alcohol in the breath have been made The tests show the ratio to be approximately 2100 in the blood to about 1 in the breath or 21001 Based on factors listed above a persons bloodbreath alcohol ratio can vary from 17001 to 24001

In simpler terms if an average person has 2100 drops of alcohol in the blood the breath tester will show a reading of 1 drop Doctors have measured the blood and breath alcohol contents of test subjects simultaneously allowing them to calculate the relationship between alcohol in the blood and alcohol in the breath

When a drunk driving suspect blows into the breath alcohol tester the machine measures the alcohol in the breath The machine then calculates the amount of alcohol in the blood by using a bloodbreath alcohol ratio This calculation of BAC is only an estimate However that estimate is what goes on the police report and is what the judge will see

The next time you have consumed alcohol and feel like you are not impaired to drive remember these points First your confidence may be simply alcoholinduced euphoria Second your life and the lives of those you drive near may all depend on what the little breath machine thinks is normal Are you willing to bet your freedom on the opinion of some fancy calculator Me neither Be safe

Need DWI help fast Investigate the free tips at the resource below