Time of Driving Vs. Time of Testing BAC
Driving Under the Influence in Florida is a crime. Sitting in jail at Central Breath Testing Under the Influence is not.
It is not uncommon for an hour, an hour and a half, or even two hours to pass between the time the officer stopped you for driving and the time you ultimately submitted to the breathalyzer test.
The more time that passes between the moment that officer seized you and the moment you blew into the machine, the more meaningless the results of the breathalyzer becomes. It has to do with the rate of absorption of the alcohol into the blood stream.
Alcohol does not enter your blood stream the moment you ingest it. Rather, it goes down to your stomach where it is slowly broken down and absorbed. The speed of absorption is dependent on multiple factors such as age, general health and fitness, metabolism, and the other contents of the stomach at the time of ingestion.
Therefore, for a period of time after ingestion of a particular quantity of alcohol your BAC steadily rises to its peak BAC. Then, as the body processes the alcohol, the amount of alcohol then lowers until eventually there is no more alcohol in the system. It generally takes around an hour after ingestion for alcohol to hit its peak BAC.
In the situation where a driver takes a couple of shots at last call, he may very well be under the legal limit during his drive home and when he is stopped by the officer. However, as time goes by, his BAC may continue to rise until he is ultimately over the limit. If the Officer waits too long to secure a breath sample from you, the sample he does secure may not accurately reflect your BAC from an hour or two earlier, when you were actually driving.
Contact a Tampa DUI Attorney to Discuss Your Options
Our Attorneys work with some of the top forensic toxicologists in the Tampa Bay Area. A Forensic Toxicologist may be able to take your Breath Result that is over the legal limit taken at the police station and extrapolate it backwards to a result that is under the legal limit at the time of driving.
Contact us today at 813-554-3232 (Hillsborough) or 727-753-0049 (Pinellas and Pasco). Ask to speak directly to a lawyer.
