The Secret Effects Of A DUI Conviction: Any DUI Conviction = Alcohol Restricted Driver = Ignition Interlock Device Installation! Here’s what they don’t tell you: When you are convicted of a DUI or for that matter a variety of any driving under the influence statute, the driver’s license division makes you an “Alcohol Restricted Driver” which means that whenever you are in “Actual Physical Control” of a car you MUST have no alcohol or .000 BAC on your breath at all times. Now each time you are pulled over for anything, the cop looking up your license will see a flashing “ARD” and come back to the car and breath test you using an even more inaccurate Portable Breath Tester (PBT) that will pick up any molecule on your breath that is the same size as an ethanol molecule and get ready – there are about 90 different organic compounds from pre-digestion in your mouth that are about the same size as ethanol molecules so PBT flags them as ethanol!!

Don’t Trust PBT’s: Human breath contains various substances that mimic ethanol/alcohol that fool Utah Intoxilyzers into reporting the presence of ethanol or higher than actual BAC levels, and there are no safety “filters” built into the PBT’s so they pick up anything that is the same size as ethanol. In other words after you eat something you can “trick” the machine into giving a false positive that can cause the police to believe you have been drinking. If you are an alcohol restricted driver (ARD) any number is death to you; so a .001 is the same as a .100 in terms of losing your license for a year and becoming alcohol restricted for even longer. I advocate buying and using a Portable Breath Testing Device (PBT) cost about $80 so that you always know if your breath is playing tricks on you. Sources: Jones, Mardh, and Anggard, Determination of Endogenous Ethanol in Blood and Breath by Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectometry, 18 Pharmacology, Bid Chemistry and Behavior 267-272 (Supp 1, 1983)

Interlock Restricted Driver (IID) Snafus: So you’ve got a DUI conviction. The court may or may not require you to have an Ignition Interlock Device (IID) installed in ANY car you own or operate (yes that can be five cars…) and that’s where the rub comes in because any DUI conviction in Utah including the first automatically trips the computer down at the DLD public safety to make you IID restricted and so if you are stopped without one, even though the court did NOT order you to install one, you will get an IID ticket and have your license suspended for a year! There are a number of other potholes, as it were, but here’s the most common one: you install the IID and you think you’re safe because each morning your car starts, but unbeknown to you that mouthwash you have been using has made you blow .024 each morning – under the lockout limit for the IID – so your car has started but it has also kept a computerized log of your breath tests and when the court gets a hold of those – after having told you to not consume a drop of alcohol over the next year of probation – they are going to haul your ass into court and accuse you of drinking every single night before each test and how are you going to prove them wrong? Dave’s answer? You guessed it – BUY A PBT AND USE IT!