In late July 2008 Harrisonburg Virginia police arrested a middle aged lady for DUI after a one car accident. She was taken to the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office to be breath alcohol tested on the Intoxilyzer 5000 kept there for that purpose.
The Intoxilyzer 5000 measures the alcohol in the subject’s blood by determing the amount of alcohol in the subject’s breath. It does not measure the alcohol present in the subject’s blood.
The Intoxilyzer kept at that location was SN 68-001998 (SN 1998). The Harrisonburg operator for SN 1998 followed all the standard protocols. SN 1998 ran its standard pre-test and post- test checks and showed to be operating normally.
The arrestee blew into SN 1998 and it reported that her blood alcohol content was over .60. SN 1998′s manual directed the Officer to seek medical attention for the subject. Medical attention is necessary because a BAC of .60 is a fatal does of alcohol; however, the subject did not die or even seem ill.
When her actual blood was tested about two hours later, it showed zero alcohol. SN 1998 falsely reported a fatal dose of alcohol — what scientists call a false positive. The gadget “lied”.
You would expect that law enforcement would launch an investigation into this incredibly inaccurate test to keep it from happening again. Wrong. Law enforcement did nothing to ensure SN 1998 was giving accurate results. Law enforcement kept using SN 1998 until late November 2008, four months after the gizmo found alcohol where none existed.
Why did this happen? In 2005, Virginia employees admitted in internal documents that the Intoxilyzer 5000s were “dated, unstable and unreliable”. Their emails indicate that the original motor was no longer being made, that replacement motors did not last as long due to manufacturing changes, that the manufacturer no longer followed this model and that any nonstandard replacement parts would require testing prior to use.
Supply and demand drove the price of the remaining original motors from $5 to $80 – $100. Virginia state employees decided to save money and buy $2 Chinese knockoff replacement motors.
With the imitation motors, SN 1998 began overheating on a regular basis and experiencing electrical instability. Technicians replaced the burnt out $2 nonstandard, untested motors with other $2 nonstandard, untested motors. This happened and is still happening all over Virginia.
Virginia employees have admitted that EC/IR II, the new breath test gizmo, is no more accurate [honest] than SN 1998 and the other Intoxilzyer 5000s. Just like SN 1998, EC/IR II does not measure the alcohol in the subject’s blood; it measures the alcohol it “sees” in the subject’s breath.
If Virginia cared about knowing an arrestee’s actual blood content it would measure actual blood. As long as Virginia uses these “lying” contraptions that measure something other than actual blood these errors will continue.
Graduated Hampden-Sydney College with BA in History in 1980; Graduated from William & Mary Law School in 1983; private law practice in Harrisonburg, VA since 1983 to present. Now mainly representing DUI, reckless driving and persons hurt in motor vehicle collisions.
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