Something to think about

[SuAvE-1]

G'day all. What do you think if the following happened:

Your at a pub/club/night-stop and your the designated driver that night. You know your going to be at the venue for at least a few hours, so you decide to have a drink. You are a P-Plater. About half an hour to one our later, you gotta go for some reason.

The venue has a breathalyser machine up on the wall, you decide to use it given you might have some trace of alcohol left (just to be safe). You register 0.000 BAC on the machine. You begin driving and on a random check, a cop pulls you over for a breath test. You register 0.01 (or 0.02 for this matter) and you get booked.

You've lost your license for six months. You lose your job because you can't go to work.

There are no disclaimers written anywhere on the machine, even if there were, it was not easily visible.

Can you take legal action against either, the night-spot, and/or the manufacturers of the machine?

This hasn't happened to me or anyone i know, but i was thinking about it today. I figure it might happen to someone i know one day at the least.

[bucket1577]

I think it would depend greatly on the disclaimer (which most of the ones I've seen have) just bear in mind that the accuracy of these machines is only as good as how recently it was checked for calibration. The only really sure way of not getting caught is by not drinking.

[SRG33]

Lol.. ive thought of that before too.. guess the best thing is not to drink n drive.. that or stay out for at least a couple of hours

[midnight]

I have seen disclaimers on those breathalysers, they say its an indication only and they are not legally responsible.

[Shell]

yeah I'm sure there's a disclaimer?? also a lot of ppl dont use them properly - you're supposed to wait 10mins or it's just a breath reading.

i would beg & grovel to the cop...tell him you've only had 1 beer (he would know it was true from the reading) and hope you get let off

[R33S2]

On the TV road drivers test (last year some time) they mentioned that blood alcohol levels are affected by the amount of water in the body. Alcohol is a directic which means it rids the body of water and they tested some ppl and the results were different for all but the ppl who drank lots of water had lower BAL than the rest.

Best not to drink at all if in doubt.

[MIKGTR]

I know a guy that calibrates BAC anylizers and he told me that if you drink 2 litres of water, for about 15 min afterwards you won't be over .05 no matter how drunk you are....

I thought it sounded like bullchit so I gave it ago on one of those pub BAC machines and it definitely works!! but its hard work drinking 2L in one go if you've already been on the juice!

ps it works on the machines the Vic police have got not sure about other states

[WazR32GTSt]

G'day all. What do you think if the following happened:

Your at a pub/club/night-stop and your the designated driver that night. You know your going to be at the venue for at least a few hours, so you decide to have a drink. You are a P-Plater. About half an hour to one our later, you gotta go for some reason.

The venue has a breathalyser machine up on the wall, you decide to use it given you might have some trace of alcohol left (just to be safe). You register 0.000 BAC on the machine. You begin driving and on a random check, a cop pulls you over for a breath test. You register 0.01 (or 0.02 for this matter) and you get booked.

You've lost your license for six months. You lose your job because you can't go to work.

There are no disclaimers written anywhere on the machine, even if there were, it was not easily visible.

Can you take legal action against either, the night-spot, and/or the manufacturers of the machine?

This hasn't happened to me or anyone i know, but i was thinking about it today. I figure it might happen to someone i know one day at the least.

in answer to your question...

bad luck, you can take no legal action against anyone

if fact, you should be shot for having a drink when you know you are going to be driving later and putting others on the road at risk

[WazR32GTSt]

I know a guy that calibrates BAC anylizers and he told me that if you drink 2 litres of water, for about 15 min afterwards you won't be over .05 no matter how drunk you are....

I thought it sounded like bullchit so I gave it ago on one of those pub BAC machines and it definitely works!! but its hard work drinking 2L in one go if you've already been on the juice!

ps it works on the machines the Vic police have got not sure about other states

there's not a lot of medical ground for that.

you see, alcohol travels in the blood. the way the body gets rid of it is:

- by metabolising it in the liver

- by excreting it in your urine, breath, sweat

so in theory, drinking 2L of water will cause you to urinate more and excrete more alcohol. in theory sweating a lot could also cause some alcohol to be excreted....

...but the reality is that the amount that you would lose is pretty insignificant and the main determinant of how your body gets rid of alcohol is the metabolic capacity of your liver.

BAC tests measure the amount of alcohol excreted in your breath (in your lungs, the blood travels very close to the air (<0.05um), exchanging many things with it). drinking 2L of water has NO direct masking effect on the way the test measures your BAC

cheers,

Warren

[Remix-]

I have seen disclaimers on those breathalysers, they say its an indication only and they are not legally responsible.

Correct!

[The Jake]

I think it would depend greatly on the disclaimer (which most of the ones I've seen have) just bear in mind that the accuracy of these machines is only as good as how recently it was checked for calibration.  The only really sure way of not getting caught is by not drinking.

Word. I think relying on a machine being maintained by someone else is pretty silly.

If you're a P plater you shouldn't be thinking about drinking and driving anyway. The person in this hypothetical situation was playing russian roulette and got nicked. It's their own fault.

- J.