Yahoo Autos DUI Tests May Be Thrown Out over Bad Breathalyzer Maintenance
The Michigan State Police has found problems with results from the breathalyzer it uses statewide, blaming the company that's supposed to maintain and calibrate them.
MSP is checking the equipment itself now and has recertified the use of 37 of the 203 machines. Meanwhile, they're suggesting police perform blood tests instead of breath tests.
In November, the New York Times conducted an investigation, finding that issues with breathalyzers are commonplace across the county.
The breathalyzer test has been an accepted part of the battle against drunk driving and results treated like gospel for more than half a century; the first breathalyzer was invented way back in 1954. Its use has been documented to reduce deaths from drunken-driving incidents. But now, the integrity of the test equipment itself is being called into question across the country.
A New York Times investigation in November found that breathalyzer tests can be unreliable if the equipment is not properly calibrated. As its headline put it, "These Machines Can Put You in Jail. Don’t Trust Them." The Times noted that in just the past year, more than 30,000 breathalyzer results have been thrown out of court in Massachusetts and New Jersey "largely because of human errors and lax governmental oversight."
Michigan is a case in point. It has been added to the list of states with issues in their breathalyzer tests after the Michigan State Police (MSP) found that the Datamaster DMT breath-testing equipment it uses is not being properly calibrated.
