Many people have likely heard of smart phone applications designed to help prevent DUI violations. However, Georgia residents who have never been arrested and charged with DUI could be in danger of finding themselves charged with DUI first offense if they rely on one of these applications. Indeed, according to one employee of a Georgia sheriff’s office, drivers are better off deleting sobriety apps from their phones altogether in favor of drinking more responsibly.
According to this representative of the sheriff’s department, no scientific evidence exists that cell phone apps designed to measure blood alcohol content actually work. Essentially, he says, these applications are instilling a false sense of security in young people. He says they are making drivers believe they can drive, when they likely should not be getting behind the wheel.
Another important point is the fact that approximately 25 percent of fatal traffic accidents involving allegations of alcohol use also involve allegations of drug use. Therefore, even if the alcohol tests on cell phone applications were accurate, they would not be providing accurate results relating to other substances. Police use various field sobriety tests, like reciting the alphabet backwards and walking a line, to determine intoxication levels. These tests have nothing to do with blood-alcohol content or the results of a Breathalyzer test.
At the end of the day, a cell phone sobriety application might incorrectly inform someone who they are safe to drive when Breathalyzer tests administered by police would indicate otherwise. There is also the fact that no Breathalyzer test is 100 percent accurate, and sometimes police evidence regarding them is thrown out in court during the litigation of a DUI first offense violation — allowing the accused in some cases to achieve a verdict of not guilty. Still, the best advice is to avoid a Georgia DUI arrest altogether by drinking responsibly and taking a taxi home in the event that one feels in the least bit inebriated. While much can be done in the defense of those accused of DUI — to get their charges dismissed and/or dropped — an ounce of prevention is most certainly worth a pound of cure.
Source: wtvm.com, Officials: Never trust a smartphone to measure blood alcohol con, Sara Lim, Feb. 10, 2014