What Is Blood Alcohol Content? – Fountain Hills

An individual’s blood alcohol concentration is the most frequently used measure of alcohol intoxication, thus making it a widely-recognized method of testing among both legal and medical professionals alike.

To ensure that you stand the best chance at successfully having your Fountain Hills DUI charges dropped, you should not wait to align yourself with a Fountain Hills DUI lawyer from the Rosenstein Law Group. Doing so will enable you to actively fight the allegations that have been made against you by challenging the specifics of your case, particularly as they pertain to your BAC level. For example, if it can be proven that the methods that were used to test your blood alcohol content were ones that have been known to yield inaccurate results, then you can viably challenge your case in Court.

The Progressive Effects of Alcohol on Your BAC

Generally, a person’s level of impairment from alcohol will progress as follows:

• .010-.029: Very subtle effects on impairment that can only be detected through special methods of testing
• .030-.059: Effects on concentration
• .06-.09: Potential effects on a person’s depth perception, reasoning, peripheral vision and glare recovery
• .10-.19: Impairment of a person’s reflexes, gross motor control and reaction time; additional symptoms at these stages include slurred speech, staggering, temporary erectile dysfunction and the possibility of temporary alcohol poisoning
• .20-.29: Severe motor impairment at this stage, including possible loss of consciousness and memory blackout
• .30-.39: Impairment of a person’s bladder function, heart rate and breathing patterns; disequilibrium may also be experienced at this time
• .40-.50: Impairment of a person’s breathing and heart rate; risk of positional alcohol nystagmus
• >.50: High risk of alcohol poisoning and possible death

Challenging Your Charges

One of the most crucial components involved in challenging the DUI charges that have been made against you is that of your BAC level. Specifically, how your BAC level was determined. Currently, many different methods of measuring a person’s BAC level exist; however, none of these have been proven to yield results that can be relied upon as 100 percent accurate. Most frequently, a person who is suspected of driving under the influence will be tested in one of the following five ways:

1. Urine sample
2. Saliva sample
3. Hair follicle sample
4. Blood test
5. Breath test

Most often law enforcement officers will utilize one of the last two methods – blood or breath testing – to secure the results they need to make an arrest. Furthermore, because blood tests are considered to be a highly invasive method, the breath test is much more heavily used, but it depends on your jurisdiction.

In a court of law, the breathalyzer test is recognized as an acceptable method of gathering evidence in a DUI case. When doing so, however, the fact that breathalyzer tests can yield results that vary significantly from a person’s actual BAC level must be taken into consideration. In fact, this is such a common problem that some courts have thrown out the results yielded by a breathalyzer test, questioning the reliability of such machines.

Rather than face the details of your case on your own, or under the representation of a public defender, entrust in the experienced Fountain Hills legal defense that can be found at the Rosenstein Law Group. Our professional legal team is fully prepared to help you aggressively challenge the results of your BAC test in court, thus allowing you a better chance at avoiding an ultimate conviction.

Contact a Lawyer

To learn more about BAC and what the Rosenstein Law Group can do for you, contact a DUI attorney from our firm at 480-248-7666.