One Million people may be on the way. Savannah’s 2012 Saint Patrick’s Day Parade could be the largest in the world. I’m reminded of a quote from John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil:
Observe the high holidays — Saint Patrick’s Day and the day of the Georgia-Florida football game. Savannah has the third-biggest Saint Patrick’s Day parade in America. People come from all over the South to see it. Businesses close for the day, except for restaurants and bars, and the drinking starts around 6 a.m. Liquor is the major feature of the Georgia-Florida football game, too, but the similarity ends there.
The Preliminary Breath Test (PBT) is used incorrectly by many police officers in Savannah, Georgia. On Saint Patrick’s Day it gets used worse. The PBT used by the police in Savannah, Georgia is the Alco-Sensor.
The Preliminary Breath Test (PBT) is a roadside initial alcohol screening device. It’s used to confirm the chemical basis of your impairment. The PBT can help to confirm all other evidence and to confirm the officer’s judgment as to whether you are impaired. It’s used to show the presence of alcohol in your system. The PBT does not show how much alcohol you have in your body, but rather if you show any alcohol in your body. Positive Alco-Sensor result is not enough. The PBT should never be the sole basis for a DUI arrest. They are never checked for calibration. Police departments lack the equipment and training. Most importantly, they are not right. For more information on Georgia’s Preliminary Breath Test, see Allen Trapp’s blog post : More on PBT’s (Preliminary Breath Tests): The Alco-Sensor. Also, check out Justin McShane’s blog post: DUI Myth Busters: Breath Test Accuracy.
First: the police officer is trained to give you three (3) field sobriety tests (Eye test, Walk and Turn, One Leg Stand). Second: based on these tests, he must decide if there is probable cause to arrest you for DUI. Third and Last: he may give you a PBT.
A good deal of police officers do give you the PBT first or some where in between the three field sobriety tests. This is wrong. To win your DUI case, you’ll need to bring this out on cross-examination. You’ll need a Field Sobriety expert witness. I know plenty of good ones. If you’d like to talk about it, call me up.
Written by Jason Cerbone
What's up. I'm Jason Cerbone. Am trying to be the expert DUI attorney champion of the world. Hope this doesn't sound over-confident but you have to have confidence to be a champion and that is the only thing I ever wished to be.
