What You Need to Know About The Draeger Breath Test Machine
Posted Tuesday, May 2, 2017 by Andrew Charles Huff
In 2014, the Washington State Patrol unveiled the Draeger 9510, the new breath test machine to be used in DUI cases across Washington. This new breath test machine replaces the Datamaster and Datamaster CDM machines, which had been used in our State for 30 years. Although the WSP seemed to be quite confident that some of the problems with the Datamaster machines would be alleviated, the Draeger launch has not gone as smoothly as they would have liked.
Many of us with the defense bar have challenged the admissibility of this machine in several counties but the fight started in Snohomish County, where our group has raised money for experts to identify potential issues with the Draeger. Breath test machines are quite complex both with the science of how alcohol levels are determined and also with the software and computer programming involved, which controls how the machine operates. But we needed more than just the manual or the word of the state-hired breath test technicians. We need to know how exactly this machine works, and more importantly, what problems potentially lie inside the machine’s software.
In 2015, motions were brought in front of a group of Snohomish County District Court Judges regarding the defense’s request to get more access to and information about the Draeger breath test machine. The defense expert testified that he would not be able to determine the accuracy of the Draeger software with only the embedded software source code. Instead, he needed to understand the process involved in the creation of the software. Specifically, the Draeger machine analysis required dynamic testing, which is a process of comparing what the embedded software code should do with what it actually does. This type of testing would take about 6 to 8 weeks, and would require about 5,000 hours to complete.
In order to complete this type of extensive testing, the Snohomish County District Court Judges found that the items requested by the defense were reasonable and discoverable, and therefore the State was ordered to hand over two Draeger machines to the defense and its expert so that testing on the machines could be performed.This ruling was a pretty big win for all defense attorneys and DUI defendants around the State. Snohomish County has told its troopers that the Draeger machine should not be utilized unless necessary, and therefore blood tests are being used in the high majority of DUI arrests.
