One of the most frightening aspects of drunk driving laws is that a driver may feel fine to driver, and have no idea that the couple of drinks he or she had earlier in the evening resulted in a blood alcohol level above the legal limit.
It would take a superhuman effort to determine, for example, whether one’s blood alcohol level is .06 or .08, but that .02 difference divides legal driving (though impaired) from driving that is punishable by a hefty fine or jail time.
The police, though, have powerful devices that can measure blood alcohol levels with extreme precision. Thus, the average driver may not know their true level of impairment until it’s too late due to a technological disadvantage.
This fact, however, is changing. Rapid advances in technology have started to bridge the knowledge gap between police officers and drivers who have had a few drinks.
One exciting example of new personal breathalyzer technology was revealed at the this year’s Mobile World Congress, where the Japanese-based cell phone company NTT Docomo released a breathalyzer device for smartphones.
According to a report in the International Business Times, the company’s unique form of breathalyzer attaches to smartphones and uses sensors to detect alcohol concentration and the breath odor of smartphone users.
The technology, however, does have some limits. Rather than offer a precise measurement of a user’s blood alcohol level, the NTT Docomo device only ranks a user’s level of inebriation on a scale from one to five.
While this may offer some guidance to drivers who have had a few drinks, it is not accurate enough to give a definite answer about one’s level of inebriation.
Moreover, even if it did give an accurate reading, and that reading was below .08, if a police officer’s breath test later registered a level above .08, the arrestee’s prior cell phone reading would not be admissible as evidence in court.
So, the new technology is certainly not a magic device, nor should it guide users in their decisions to drive home.
No police officer will have sympathy for drunk drivers who claim that their smartphone app told them they were only a “2” on the inebriation scale.
So, even with the exciting cell phone technology, drivers still have to rely on their common sense. If you have been drinking, but not very sure about your level of drunkenness, it is best to be cautious and err on the side of not driving.
