It does seem a bit funny how you do it in the US to be honest. In the UK, you have a roadside breath test - Blow into a tube, device reads the alcohol % in your breath.
Device has a traffic light type display. After thirty seconds or so, it either lights up:
Green = Zero Alcohol
Amber = Some Alcohol, but below the limit
Red = Over the limit.
The legal alcohol limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for driving is 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath
Thats it - Simple. Then, if the device is green or amber the police can start looking for other 'problems' should they see fit. But the point is, the 'Drunk Or Not' question is answered straight away...
Yet, despite having these devices in the US (As I'm led to believe anyway) they seem to prefer to have you do a series of activities that I've heard most people would have trouble with 100% sober...
Seems like a loaded system to me, less about being drunk & more about the police being able to humiliate you, as opposed to just doing a simple breath test, that solves the question in under a minute or so?
Am I wrong? I did live there for nearly 10 years, but never had a traffic stop where they thought / said I was drunk?
|