Birthday Present For The DUI Lawyer: What my office gave to me for my birthday

Do you wish you had a video of yourself trying to provide a breath sample when you were stopped by the police for impaired driving? Well, I have a gift (Birthday Present For The DUI Lawyer) to share with you! 

You may have already seen the Gunn Law Group video and know what I got for my birthday. But I started saying in the video why I was surprised… and unless you have listened to our podcast Why SafeRoads Does Not Make Me Feel Safe, you won’t necessarily know the answer to the teaser in our video about what I was so surprised about. 

If you are fans of our blogs, you may remember one that was called “What My Husband Bought Me For Christmas”. No, I do not relate to the whole wide world every present I get for every occasion. But these two gifts came with a specific purpose. 

When Christmas, my husband gave me a dashcam. It was shortly after a time when I was stopped at a checkstop and was unable to provide a proper breath sample for the first 4 attempts on the screening device. At that point, I was panicking and was scared I was going to end up with a Notice of Administrative Penalty for failure to provide a breath sample. Thankfully, with helpful coaching from the patient officer, I was able to provide a breath sample (with a reading of 0) on the fifth attempt.

I wanted a dashcam so that, in the future, if I were stopped and had difficulty trying to provide a sample again (and perhaps did not have as sympathetic an officer), I would be able to show what efforts I was trying to make to provide a good sample. 

Well, the saga continues. For my birthday this past June, my office gave me an approved screening device of my very own! It’s an Alco-Sensor FST by Intoximeter. I could not believe it! 

The first thing I did (after admiring the beautiful case, the mouthpieces etc) was blow into it, of course! I was very surprised that I was able to provide a good sample on my first attempt. I wondered if it was an anomaly but after a few minutes later, I was able to do it again. Hmmm… 

 I knew I had been doing my best with the officer. But I was seated and for the first few attempts still had my seatbelt on. I had pivoted towards the officer when trying to blow. Luckily, he disregarded his training and did not scream continuously at me “BLOW, BLOW, BLOW, BLOW HARDER, BLOW HARDER”. I cannot imagine that helping anyone! He told me to bite the mouthpiece (which did help). Also, for the last one or two attempts, I had taken my seatbelt off and turned my torso to better face the officer squarely rather than continue trying to blow on an angle. 

When I blew in the office with my own ASD, I was standing upright and not under any pressure. I was definitely completely out of breath by the time the ASD gave that happy “click” that let me know I had provided an acceptable breath sample for the device. 

People who go to the doctor’s office often have elevated blood pressure just because they are visiting the doctor. I have experienced this myself. Even though I do not think I feel nervous, my body apparently feels differently. That is why doctors will often take successive readings as they want to eliminate any concerns about “White Coat” effects. 

The effect of stress, seating position, temperature, and angles are all things I am looking forward to trying out with my new ASD. Also, I will now be able to offer to use the device to generate videos for people charged with failing or refusing to provide a breath sample. We could upload those videos in support of their SafeRoads hearing to show, on a real ASD, what the recipient of the NAP was doing to provide a sample. 

You wish you had recorded the incident. You hope that police recorded it. They likely did, but it is also equally likely that you will never be able to get that video in support of your hearing. My gift is now your gift. We have a powerful tool that we can now use in defence of our clients. Come in and let me show you one of my all-time favourite birthday gifts! 

Shannon Gunn Emery