Hi everyone
I'm seeking some advice regarding my first PCA offence in the mid range.
I was pulled over by an RBT at 4:20am (listed on my report) where I initially blew over the legal limit, the police officer asked me to pull over to the curb where I was tested again after approximately 5 minutes. Unfortunately, the reading went up, due to this I was brought to the police station to do another test on the Breathalyzer they had at the station.
I'm not exactly sure what time I was brought to the station, though I'm sure the police branch would keep logs of this. I'm not too sure if I was given the 20 minute observation period from when I entered the police station and when the first breathalyzer test was taken. Is this SAPOL procedure? From what i read on the internet this procedure exists.
The first breathalyzer reading was at 4:56am and came back with a reading of 0.093. Is there a SAPOL procedure which sets the period of time before the next breathalyzer test can be taken? The second test was at 5:00am and came back with a reading of 0.087. At this point the police officer presented me with a "notice of licence disqualification or suspension" at 5:15am for a period of up to 6 months and my car impounded for a period of 28 days.
I opted to take a blood test to test my BAC, where by the police officer dropped me off at the Hospital. The blood test sample was taken at 6:50am, 1 hour and 50 minutes after second and lowest breathalyzer reading was taken. I received my test results back the other day stating that "The sample contained not less than 0.065% alcohol".
Now I've read on the internet that the US police department in some states require the two breathalyzer samples to vary no more than 0.02%, otherwise the evidence would be deemed inadmissible. Is that the case in South Australia? As my two breathalyzer samples vary by 0.065%.
Does anyone have a statistically proven answer to how much a PCA test result could vary with a BAC test result? I've read somewhere that the difference between a breathalyzer test and a BAC test can vary at least 15%. Is this 15% higher or lower than the BAC test?
I've read that BAC levels decrease at a fairly constant rate or 0.015 per hour. After some calculations, given that my blood sample was taken 1 hour and 50 minutes after my second and lowest breathalyzer reading, from the 0.065 blood test result, my BAC should have been 0.0925. Would this indicate that my BAC level decreases a little faster than most individuals?
My car is impounded, however, I require my car for work and it affects my income if I'm not on time. My Manager has agreed to write a letter discussing my future employment.
With all these factors, is it worth my disputing the fact and pleading guilty to lower Category 1 offence? And would I be successful in doing so? Even just reducing my licence suspension to 3 months would help me a lot.
I appreciate all the future advice I receive from you all. Thanks in advance.
