While drinking and driving is never a good idea, there are just way too many things that can go horribly wrong, people should also know enough information to protect themselves from a false reading during a breathalyzer test. The fact that there are a number of ways that a breathalyzer can be wrong during the testing process shows that the information these machines provide is not always reliable. This information can be used as a way innocent people can protect themselves against false prosecution of drunk driving. Here are a five ways that a breathalyzer can be wrong.Without regular calibration, many breathalyzers lose the ability to give accurate readings. The calibration process is meant to train the breathalyzer’s sensor so that it can detect accurately the amount of alcohol that is sent through the machine. It is important for those administering a breathalyzer test to observe a test subject for twenty or more minutes so that everyone involved that the test results are not thrown off because of any residual alcohol left in the subject’s mouth. The problem with testing a subject too soon is that the machinery assumes that any alcohol found in the breath of the subject comes from the lungs and therefore is a reading of how much alcohol is in the bloodstream. It is possible for a subject to have left over alcohol in their mouth that would give a false reading on a breathalyzer when their blood alcohol rate is not really over the legal limit. One of the more common defense attorney strategies put in use to show the fallibility of a breathalyzer test is to put forth the strategy of retrograde extrapolation. Most breathalyzer tests take place at police headquarters, sometimes more than an hour after the traffic stop. What the theory of retrograde extrapolation attempts to prove is to backtrack from the time of the test to estimate what the true blood alcohol level was at the time of the citation, which would often be less.

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