The Truth About the Intoxilyzer 5000

The Intoxilyzer 5000 is one of the most standard and widely used breath test machines in the United States. Unfortunately, this test is not always accurate and it actually isn't even engineered to be alcohol-specific. The list below may surprise you, but these are things you should know about the Intoxilyzer 5000.

1. From a completely scientific standpoint, this particular breath testing machine does not accurately report concentration of blood alcohol in a person's system. What is does is test the concentration of alcohol on a person's breath to make an estimate of actual BAC. For example, this means that blowing in the Intoxilyzer 5000 and the machine registering a .08 percent does not necessarily mean that the actual BAC was .08 percent.
2. Despite scientific research to prove otherwise, it has been proven that this breath test machine cannot accurately measure blood alcohol concentration. In some tests, the Intoxilyzer 5000 actually registers blood alcohol concentration when a completely clean air sample is provided. There have been proven to be many non-alcoholic substances that give a false alcohol reading for this breath test, such as some common foods.
3. Did you know that the mechanical parts that make up the Intoxilyzer 5000 can be broken, tampered with or otherwise malfunctioning without the machine showing any signs of malfunction. Such elements as the heaters and substance detectors can break, manipulating the results of the tests.
4. The Intoxilyzer 5000 is equipped with something called the slope detector. This detector is actually assumed to be faulty. Why? Shockingly, in some cases those arrested for DUI are actually charged with refusing breath tests due to code errors in the machine itself. In other words, slope detector errors can show "deficient" breath samples even when a subject is providing a sample willingly.

After all the evidence has been laid out, it seems as if this machine is simply not enough to accurately make DUI arrests on Atlanta roads and highways. At The Law Offices of Richard S. Lawson, we believe that a machine that only generates random numbers should not be enough to convict our clients.