Ohio DUI Law: Required 20 Minutes and Mouth Alcohol
November 9, 2008
The Ohio Director of Health has mandated that the police observe you for 20 minutes before having you take a breath test. The reason for this is what is known as “mouth alcohol”. When you drink, some alcohol may remain in your mouth. This alcohol is pure and undiluted by your blood stream. As you blow into the breath test machine, traces of this undiluted alcohol may get into the machine and be tested along with the breath from your lungs. This will cause the reading to be abnormally high.
The Ohio Director of Health has determined that 20 minutes is sufficient to allow any mouth alcohol to dissipate and not affect the test. So if you were pulled over at 1:00 a.m. and tested at 1:17 a.m., then that test is likely going to be thrown out on your attorney’s motion to suppress since there is no way that you could have been observed for 20 minutes.
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