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How to find your BAC in a San Diego DUI
A forensic toxicologist is the only one that will be able to predict your Blood Alcohol Concentration (“BAC”) in a fair manner. It is important to hire a licensed California toxicologist if you plan on taking your DUI to trial because you believe the BAC calculation may not be accurate. The BAC is calculated in a manner based on the amount of alcohol in person’s body. This simply means calculating the weight of the alcohol in a person’s blood. This is extremely technical but it can be calculated correctly.
Why is BAC calculated for criminal court?
BAC is used in court to determine how much alcohol a person has consumed during a specific period of time. A forensic toxicologist is used to show the court how this number is calculated and provide information to a judge and jury about how much alcohol was in the person’s blood at the moment they were pulled over by an officer.
What is the DUI law in San Diego?
In the state of California and in the county of San Diego, a person is legally drunk when they have a BAC of .08% or higher. This means eight one hundredth of a person’s blood is alcohol. This is the jigsaw puzzle for the prosecution to figure out the formula for the jury to believe this statement to be true based on the prediction of alcohol levels after alcohol is consumed.
What is the formula experts use to predict alcohol levels?
The forensic toxicologist in your case will estimate alcohol levels using the Widmark Calculations. This means that they need to collect raw data from the DUI arrest to make this calculation. The most important is the particular time from the point of driving to the time the chemical test completed. There is a 3-hour presumption under Title 17 that the police have a window to conduct a chemical test from the point they see you driving. The Widmark Calculation is used to determine the maximum amount of blood alcohol consumed by a person in one hour over a specific period of time. Without getting too technical we are trying to determine the minimum amount someone would have consumed to reach a certain BAC value over a period of time.
Why is the Widmark Calculation important?
The Widmark Calculation is important in calculating the BAC of someone and taking into account that person’s weight, gender, and other factors that will not typically come up in front of a jury without discussing the formula used to determine BAC in a DUI case.
If you want to know the amount of alcohol in your blood over an hour period, feel free to contact us to get your DUI case reviewed by one of our forensic toxicologist. At Monder Law we have a team of skilled experts in the area of DUI and criminal defense. You will learn about absorption rate because it provides a platform to predict the accuracy of your alcohol levels in your DUI case. It is important to know how much you would need to drink given your age, weight, metabolism, food intake and gender to actually be at a BAC of a .08% or higher.
How fast does alcohol absorb in the blood stream?
Alcohol is fully absorbed into the blood stream within 30 minutes to 2 hours after it is consumed. This occurs based on the metabolism of about .25 ounces of alcohol per hour. However, absorption all depends on a variety of factors. Most important is a persons size, weight, and how fast beverages are consumed.
If you have any questions about the DUI process, feel free to contact San Diego Attorney Vik Monder at 619.405.0063 or visit San Diego Criminal Defense Lawyer