Walk It Through: The Breath Test and the Notice
An arrest, the right to refuse, the second question, and three days to write to the director.
After an arrest for operating under the influence, the officer asks for a breath or blood test.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
A first arrest for alcohol with no crash, no injury and no child passenger. The criminal sentence, a drug case, a driver under twenty one and the interlock are left to their own pages.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Administrative revocationThe revocation of a license that follows a notice issued at the arrest, decided by the director apart from the criminal case.
- Implied consentAnyone who operates a vehicle on a public way, street, road or highway, or on or in the waters of the State, is deemed to have consented to a test of breath, blood or urine approved by the director of health.
- Operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicantOperating or assuming actual physical control of a vehicle while impaired by alcohol or a drug, or with .08 or more grams of alcohol per two hundred ten liters of breath or per one hundred milliliters of blood.
- Probable causeFacts and circumstances, within an officer's knowledge or from reasonably trustworthy information, enough for a person of reasonable caution to believe a crime has been or is being committed.
- Highly intoxicated driverA driver with .15 or more grams of alcohol per one hundred milliliters of blood, or per two hundred ten liters of breath.