More trouble for the Intoxilyzer 8000, the same machine used in every Kansas DUI breath test case. According to this news story, “thousands” of people in Florida have been tested on these machines going back to 2006 and it turns out the machine was improperly measuring the volume of the breath sample and giving results that were “humanly impossible”. Oops. There are 231 Intoxilyzer 8000 machines in Florida and so far inspectors have determined that 40% of them are making the incorrect measurements. The state agency in charge of the machines is attempting to quietly fix them and put them back in service but no one is going to bother to tell the thousands of people who have pled guilty and lost their driver’s licenses that they may have been wrongfully convicted or had their license revoked without good cause.
It turns out that the Florida agency in charge of inspecting the machines each year and seeing that they were working properly was not bothering to check and see if the machine was measuring the volume of air in each sample properly, nor were they inspecting, checking or calibrating the “pressure transducer” on the machine which measures the air flow. The problem was only brought to light when defense attorneys questioned the reports from the machine of 10 to 15 liter breath samples supposedly produced by their clients. Human beings are only capable of producing a sample of up to 5 liters maximum. Yet, the machines were measuring humanly impossible breath volume amounts and reporting breath test results of 4 times the legal limit. Relying on these results from the machine, citizens were convicted, sent to jail, put in treatment, lost their licenses, etc.
If that doesn’t bother you, maybe this will: When Kansas bought the Intoxilyzer 8000 they insisted that the manufacturer engineer out the measurement of sample volume. The machine is designed to measure and report the volume of a breath sample. Kansas asked that this capability be removed from the software in our machines. So, we will never know if and when our machines are out of whack on measuring breath volume. No one bothers to check the “pressure transducer” on the machines used in Kansas DUI cases. The machine is supposed to measure only “deep lung” air. The first 1.1 liters of expired breath comes from the mouth and esophagus and does not represent what is in the person’s blood. The machine can’t be accurate if measuring this air. Yet, Kansas got rid of all that even though it came standard with the machine. Why? Because it would just be one more source of error for the machine. It would be one more thing that the accused could point to in defending their innocence. Since there are virtually no regulations on breath testing in Kansas (and absolutely NONE on blood testing), and extremely minimal quality control oversight on the machines and the agencies using them, why add this additional information which might show that the machine wasn’t working properly?
The people charged with a DUI in Kansas, and their lawyers, will never know if and, inevitably, when, our Intoxilyzer 8000’s began mismeasuring breath volume and giving false results. So, while it is a proven fact that 40% of the machines in Florida are wrong, and thousands of breath tests are in question, the thousands charged with DUI in Kansas will have to just hope the machine in which their entire fate is placed was working as advertised.