Drinking, Driving and Breathalyzers
If You Like To Drink, Do Not Drive - If You Do Drive – Be Prepared For a Breath/Exhalation Test If you want to drink that is fine. But if you want to drive after drinking, be aware of the consequences if the police stop you. You may lose your drivers license. The permitted alcohol level is low in Israel; therefore one drink could be one too many. To understand why the police use the breath/exhalation test, first let us examine how alcohol works in our body.The metabolic route of alcohol in the body:
Alcohol is absorbed in the stomach immediately. Twenty percent is absorbed through the walls of the stomach into the bloodstream. The rest is absorbed in the small intestine. The whole of it goes to the blood, and when blood passes through the liver, the body begins dismantling and disposing of it. The disposal is done in two mechanisms - the dismantling and the excretion. Approximately 90% of alcohol metabolizes into carbon dioxide and water. Decomposition takes place almost entirely in the liver. The remainder stays unchanged in our breath, urine and sweat. Experiments show that the amount of alcohol in our breath is proportional to the amount of it in our blood and this is why the police use the breath test. The metabolic route of the alcohol includes its dismantling in the liver and because a minority of alcohol is emitted in the airways, we can check whether the person is under the influence of alcohol by a blood alcohol content test or a breath alcohol content test. From the above we can conclude, in light of the fact that the concentration of alcohol in the brain is affecting the driving skills and in light of the fact that the concentration of alcohol in the blood simulates the alcohol concentration on the brain and concentration of alcohol in the air simulates the concentration in the blood, the breath/exhalation test is then a kind of third tool for measuring the concentration of alcohol in the brain. From the physiological point of view, when examining the connection between the effects of alcohol on the brain concentration, a blood test is preferable to a breath/exhalation test.Police procedure for drunkenness offenses:
According to procedure, tests for drunkenness from alcohol will be done by the breath/exhalation test. However, according to the police procedures, “under specified circumstances”, a police officer may require that a suspected drunk driver submit to a blood or urine sample test. One of these “specific circumstances” is when the suspected driver asked on his own initiative to have a blood or urine test.Important:
If you refuse to be examined for the breath/exhalation test the presumption will be that you are intoxicated! This is how the law works in Israel - therefore make your choices accordingly. Why would a person refuse to take the test? The only reason is the “Device reliability”. There are those who refuse to take the test because they have heard and read that the device is not reliable enough to provide conclusive results and therefore they prefer a blood test. It is fair enough to undergo a blood test and refuse to pass the breath/exhalation test, but to not undergo any test will be considered driving under the influence of alcohol solely on the basis of that refusal.A word of wisdom:
It is your decision to drive or not if you have had “just one drink”. But if under the influence of just this “one drink”, you are caught by the police and fail the test, the price will be a fine in addition to a disqualification of your drivers license, and in many cases, arrest and prison! We all like to have fun and a drink once in a while; but we all deserve to return home safely – if you drink, do not drive!Sincerely,
Tzvi Szajnbrum, Attorney at Law