When a driver is stopped on suspicion of impaired driving, a series of steps takes place, including the request from a law enforcement officer for a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) test. The most typical request is for a breath sample, but blood or urine samples can be requested. In contrast to being stopped by an officer for other driving violations, the result of an impaired driving stop may dramatically impact a person’s life. The driver faces an arrest, possible jail time, expensive fines, increased insurance costs, loss of their driver’s license, and a criminal record. Thus, the driver’s decision whether to provide the breath test has serious consequences. This report discusses the important issue of breath test refusals. It begins with a short background on the impaired driving problem and the issue of missing BAC information for both drivers arrested for impaired driving and drivers involved in fatal or serious injury crashes. Next, various laws governing impaired driving and the role of BAC test information under those laws are reviewed. That is followed by a brief overview of the DWI arrest process to provide a foundation for the discussion of refusals. The results of several recent studies examining the breath test refusal issue, including breath test refusal rates in 2005, and a comparison to rates in 1987 and 2001 are presented; followed by the effect of refusals on prosecution and adjudication of DWI cases; next is a description of a promising strategy to decrease refusals — the use of search warrants for bloods draws. The report concludes with recommendations that would decrease the incidence of missing BAC data. (Author/publisher)
Abstract