Blood Alcohol Content

What Was Your Blood Alcohol Content?

When you got into the car to drive, you probably felt like you were able to drive, and you may well have been. The arresting officer may have relied on minor driving errors and the officer's interpretation of subjective field sobriety tests (FSTs). These observations can be deceptive and not true representations of someone's level of intoxication.

Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County

The DUI charges and the court's judgment focus primarily on one over-riding number, the BAC or blood alcohol content. That is the number written in California law to define what is and what is not drunk driving. Contact the DUI defense lawyers at the Takakjian, Sowers & Sitkoff LLP law firm. Blood alcohol level readings can vary widely over short periods of time. We will make sure your BAC was determined fairly and with appropriately maintained equipment.

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No matter how you feel or what your own assessment of your driving capability is, the alcohol weight in your blood cannot exceed .08%. Under California law, you cannot legally drive if your blood alcohol concentration (BAC is) .08%. The same rule applies to operation of all motor vehicles and recreational vehicles such as boats and jet skis. (A BUI boating under the influence, charge can also affect your record.)

• To be charged with DUI, your BAC must be .08% or greater.
• It is illegal for drivers over age 21 to operate a commercial vehicle or recreational vehicle with a BAC of .04%.
• Drivers younger than 21 years of age cannot drive any vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .01% or more. A new law makes this a criminal offense and may lead to the loss of your license for one year!
• If your BAC is below the legal standards for drunk driving, that does not mean it is safe to drive. Some drivers have been arrested when they supposedly showed the effects of alcohol at lower levels.
• Laws have changed. The BAC for drunk driving was once .15% and later .10%. Today, all 50 states have a .08% limit.
• Before administering a breath test, the officer is required to continuously observe you for 15 minutes pursuant to Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations. This is not always done properly. The breath or blood alcohol testing machine (Alco Senor IV, Breathalyser, EC-IR, Datamaster, Alcotest 7410, PAS PBT) maintenance and calibration records must be in order. Our DUI defense lawyer will check the machine logs as well as the officer's radio logs to make sure those requirements were met.
• At the scene the officer may have given you a Preliminary Alcohol Screening - PAS device test. These PBT's or Portable Breath Testing devices are notoriously inaccurate.

If you are given a blood test, our DUI attorney will request a "blood split" so that a sample can be tested by an independent lab.

If you had a drink an hour or less before being pulled over, a blood test taken an hour after the stop may indicate a higher alcohol level (BAC) than what you really had at the time of the stop. With a marginal BAC, that could be an indication that you were not even guilty of DUI drunk driving.

If you have been arrested for drunk driving in Southern California, contact the DUI attorneys at Takakjian, Sowers & Sitkoff LLP. As former deputy district attorneys, we know the courts, including DUI, from every perspective. We represent clients in communities that include: Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, Orange County, Santa Ana, Long Beach, California, Anaheim, Torrance, Pasadena, Glendale, Santa Clarita, Ventura, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Newport Beach, Fullerton, Rancho Cucamonga, Orange, Ontario, Riverside, Burbank, West Covina, Norwalk, Oxnard, Pomona, Westminster, Alhambra, Whittier, Laguna Niguel, Thousand Oaks, Mission Viejo, Simi Valley, and Bellflower.

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