Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media
“Well, you mentioned something that I wanted to bring up right now, and that’s blood alcohol content. I think, the acronym, BAC? And you’ve got tests that occur at the time of the arrest, field sobriety tests. And then you’ve got other tests, chemical test, blood test, that can occur later. Can you explain those three, the difference between, and how it affects your approach to a case?”
Stuart Kirchick – Criminal Defense Attorney – Santa Clara County, CA
“Sure. At the scene, officers have a number of tools that they use to determine if there’s probably cause that you are violating the DUI laws. So they have, what you’ve heard, field sobriety tests that they utilize and then they’ll utilize what’s called a PAS device. PAS. It’s a preliminary alcohol screening device. It’s sort of like a pen, if you will, like a hollowed out pen. And they ask you to breathe in it. And if it comes out with a reading, and if that reading is anywhere from .06 or more, .07 or more, that’s enough, along with the totality of the other circumstances, based upon the other filed sobriety tests, whether the officer is going to make an arrest.
You then have an obligation under the privilege of having a driver’s license to submit to a breath test or a blood test. And so, at that point, you go to a different breathalyzer machine, it’s a more accurate machine than the preliminary alcohol screening device at the roadside. And you could blow into that…that’ll come out with another reading, or a blood test can result in even a more accurate reading than either of those other two breath machines.”
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