Reader’s Question:

I am high school student in Oklahoma. An assignment was given by my health teacher regarding a blood alcohol testing. What is a blood alcohol test?

Jane

Lawton, OK

This is a physical practice to decide how much alcohol you in fact have in your system. There are three techniques of doing this test: first, the expert will pull out a sample of blood from your arm; second, they will be obtaining a urine sample; third, they will be obtaining a breath sample by having you breathe out into a machine called a breathalyzer. The breathalyzer is much more complicated and exact than the field sobriety test.

You have the option of which one of these three tests you will take. The only time your able to decide which test you take can lawfully be constrained is if you are in a region that purely does not have a breathalyzer. The officer is mandatory to tell you that the option as to which test you take is up to you. But quite frequently officers will try to pressure or browbeat a person into taking the blood test because this is the most effective procedure for the prosecution to use against a person in court. You do not have the right to refuse to take any test. Legally, the officer could hold you down and powerfully draw a blood sample from your veins. In practice this rarely happens excluding where an accident is involved which caused death or serious bodily injury. Instead, if you refuse to take a test, your driver’s license is automatically suspended for one year. Also, in your trial, the jury will be told that you refused to take the test and the judge will tell the jury that they can think about your refusal as evidence of your guilt.