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Human error causes problems in drink-driving cases

By Murray Bourne, 20 Apr 2011

Math in the News

The Philadelphia-based Philly.com has featured several stories this month about an on-going saga concerning breath-testing machines.

The Intoxilyzer 8000 helped to convict over 1000 drivers for DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol) - but due to a calibration error, every one of those cases will be reviewed.

So far, police believe 416 of the DUI convictions have been affected.

Intoxilyzer
One of the faulty Intoxilyzer machines (image source)

This article has the best math background, when the story was breaking:

Operator error in breath tests?

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey later admittted, 'We screwed up.'

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Posted in Mathematics category - 20 Apr 2011 [Permalink]

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