Can a 3 day suspension be contested since BC Police have recalled 2200 breathalyzers
 

I received a 3 day suspension on halloween. I blew a warn and the ticket states that the 3 day suspension can not be contested and i would need to pay in order to retrieve my license and car back. Fair enough if the equipment was properly calibrated and fair.

However BC police have just recalled 2200 breathalyzer units and suspended all roadside suspensions of 3 days or longer.

Is there a process to contest this now? I may have been tested and fined and marked in the system based on data from an inaccurate breathalyzer.

I am looking to have my record cleared and money reimbursed , 200 fine, 250 icbc, 200 towing and storage IF i was tested with faulty equipment.

Anyone have any suggestions.

Thanks


Vancouver Sun Article
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/pol...900/story.html

The gist of it is "
Until that time, police will not issue roadside suspensions of three days or longer under new provincial drunk driving laws, but can still issue 24-hour suspensions if they have reasonable grounds to believe a motorist is impaired.

Graham said he had no idea how many drivers may have already received longer suspensions for falling with the breathalyzers' margin of error."

Check out the other threads regarding the "margin of error" - it's tiny to begin with.

This isn't happening because the units are defective or "improperly calibrated".

You should ALWAYS contest such a suspension and impoundment for blowing a warn. You weren't CONVICTED of anything yet you have incurred great expense (financial and otherwise).

I distinctly recall reading on the ticket that the 3 day can not be contested. I will verify tonite

if you hadn't been drinking, it wouldn't have happened....

the article specifically says they are just going to recalibrate them all and change it so that even if theres a 99% chance you're 0.05, it will show 0.04 (-0.01), to account for any small margins of error.

so if you blew a 0.06 or higher than i'd say your SOL.

edit: do they actually tell you what your exact BAC is? I've never had to blow.

J617:
The machines dont tell you what you blew. It just says WARN. I was fairly confident i was going to pass, but my bac according to the breathalyzer said differently.

The argument could be made that i could have been borderline .04 creeping into .05, but i also could have been .09 creeping into .08. The point is that inaccurate readings MAY have been used to issue me a ticket that has cost me around $700 and my record has been flagged as such. If the unit used was calibrated correctly, i will accept the punishment. However this current recall does shed considerable doubt on that

Excuse my immaturity, but I just had to point this out :rofl:

...and that is probably one of the wisest comments being heard on the topic from my point of view.

The ASD's are being recalibrated so that the "warn" range will now be 60 to 99 mg%. Given the tolerance of the instrument (no, it's not a machine) as +/- 5 mg%, that will mean that anyone blowing a warn will be at least 55 mg% (.055) or more.

I've blown into a breathalyzer once and it gave me a 012 reading which the officer explained was .012% bac, then told me to drive home. it came in its own little briefcase.

This thread has veered off topic. Nonetheless the article was updated and answered my question.

"There is a very small margin of error where a 'warn' reading could potentially be lower than .05...," Graham told a Vancouver news conference.

Eric Gottardi, chair of the Vancouver criminal justice subsection of the Canadian Bar Association, said potentially hundreds of motorists have been wrongly suspended due to faulty breathalyzer readings.

He said the "thorny issue" is that the window of appeal for a roadside suspension is seven days, potentially leaving motorists out of luck. He recommended they write the superintendent of motor vehicles seeking an appeal retroactively, based on the latest announcement by the police chiefs association."

Jack: The old units produced a number, the new ones dont.

If you blow a pass it will show you the BAC number. If you blow a warn or a fail it will only show that: "WARN" or "FAIL"

I never knew that. Makes more sense to me that it should show the BAC all the time so that it can be recorded and noted.

^yeah I'm not comfortable with that either.

THere's not a whole lot of transparency with this new rule from beginning to end, in its inception and application.

I DO agree with not drinking & driving. And I'm not against enforcement of that.
Just not the way it's been done.

The police must enforce the laws, and not lose public appeal and image while doing so. THe way this new law went down doesn't really help it.

I just love how the media are all using the term "recall" for this story, making it sound like the things are all defective or something... :rolleyes:

Yes they do. I had to blow once, and the police officer showed me I got 0.021 that time. There was a neat little red LED display.

No matter the outcome, I'm sure you won't do that again. :) Good luck.

The ASD instruments will dislpay a numbered reading under .06. It will display a WARN between (after re-calibration) .6 and .99 and it will display a FAIL above .1. There is a manual function that can be used to display the # for all ranges but it is not frequently used.

Fixed. ;)

whoops! I suppose the location of the decimal point is critical here:D

I've never seen a reading higher than 4.5

3-7 day impounds cannot be released early by appeal... thats what the ticket states.

You were given the option of blowing into a separate 2nd ASD device when you were read the driving prohibition. That would've been the immediate appeal process.

Don't drink and drive.

An immediate appeal process conducted with an ASD now recalled for re-calibration ;)