Breath tests performed by a DataMaster DMT machine at a Vermont State Police barracks could be faulty.
MONTPELIER, Vt.— A mistake in the software set-up on a breath analysis machine and whistleblowers' complaints about unethical lab work threaten dozens of drunken-driving prosecutions in Vermont.
At issue are breath tests performed by a DataMaster DMT machine at a Vermont State Police barracks that authorities say wasn't set up properly. Amid a broadening inquiry by two defense attorneys, dozens of criminal convictions could be reopened and a handful of civil license suspensions are being overturned.
The state Health Department, which is being stripped of the breath-testing program, says the machines didn't give any erroneous readings. At issue, officials say, is human error that resulted in one machine at a Vermont State Police barracks operating for almost a year without a self-check function that assures it's working properly.
"People can go to jail and lose their driver's licenses based on this science," says George Ostler, a defense attorney in Norwich who has clients who were prosecuted using test results from the machine. "When they don't maintain the machines like this, it's disturbing."
The machines, which cost about $6,150 each, use infrared light to detect the presence of alcohol. Each machine is supposed to conduct a self-check to measure the alcohol content of a control sample before it analyzes a subject's breath.
The issue with the one at the state police barracks in Royalton is that two state Department of Health chemists failed to activate the self-check function, called a tolerance detector, before it went into use in May 2010.
Link:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/05/15/vermonts_dui_breath_testing_program_under_fire/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Local+news