When the State obtains the Blood, Breath, or Urine of a person who has been arrested for DUI, it does so upon a State-approved machine. Regarding Breath samples, after years of relying upon the Intoxylizer 5000 and enduring challenges to the reliability and sufficiency of that machine, as of 31 December 2016, all Breath samples in DUI cases must be obtained on an Intoxylizer 9000. These Breath machines are located in law enforcement agencies throughout the State of Georgia. In Bulloch County, Intoxylizer 9000 machines are located at the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Department, the Georgia Southern University Police Department, and the Statesboro Police Department.
These Breath machines are supposed to be regularly inspected and certified by the Area Implied Consent Supervisor – a Trooper whose job it is to tell eveyone that the State machine is in good working order. In addition to the regular, quarterly inspection, certain procedures are supposed to be followed every time that the machine is used. These are but two (2) of the requirements that must be met by the State in order to ensure that the machine is working properly. It is important to remember that these are machines that have numerous parts and pieces, and, like all machines, they can be subject to error – human or machine error. Indeed, something as simple and as prevalent as Police Radios can cause the machine to be in error.
Regarding Blood and/or Urine Tests, when the State obtains Blood or Urine in a DUI case, the substance will be sent to one of the State Crime Labs where the substance will be tested on a Gas Chromatograph and/or a Mass Spectrometer. Similar to the Intoxylizer 9000, while these devices have fancy sounding names, they too are simply machines that are subject to operator/human and/or device error. Furthermore, when obtaining Blood, the law allows only certain types of professionals to draw the Blood from the motorist.
In order to assist you in analyzing Test Results and the machines that provide those Results, contact an experienced and knowledgeable DUI Attorney such as Joey Cowart to assist you.
