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Minnesota Supreme Court Rejects DUI Challenges Based On Buggy Software

Posted by Soulskill on from the technology-always-works-perfectly dept.

bzzfzz writes "In a case with parallels to the Diebold Voting Machine fiasco, Minnesota's Supreme Court upheld the reliability of the Intoxilyzer 5000EN breath testing machine on a narrow 4-3 vote. Source code analysis during the six-year legal battle revealed a number of bugs that could potentially affect test results. Several thousand DUI cases that were waiting on the results of this appeal will now proceed. The ruling is one in a series of DUI-related court victories for police and prosecutors. Other recent cases upheld a conviction of a person with no evidence that the vehicle had been driven and convictions based solely on urine samples that may only show impairment hours before driving. The Intoxilyzer 5000EN is now considered obsolete, and replacement devices are being rolled out, with the last jurisdictions in the state scheduled to retire their 5000ENs by the end of the year."

2 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. smoking pot is betterer by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    If you drink and drive, what happens? You go speeding around like a lunatic asshole and kill people.
    If you smoke out and drive, what happens? You go 10mph under the speed limit and still miss your exit. Then you spend 15 minutes lost in a cloverleaf trying to turn around. Then you drive at 10mph under the limit and you STILL miss your exit, so you end up at a 7-11 getting some Soda pop and a sack of chips and chocolate bars but it's too hard to figure out the change, so you let the guy behind the counter do it, and then you pig out enough that your head clears long enough that you DON'T miss your exit and you end up watching Tim and Eric's Awesome Show Good Job! or Wonder Showzen reruns until you fall asleep in the barcalounger.

    True story.

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  2. Attacking the problem from the wrong end. by Apuleius · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Want to know why drunk driving is so endemic in the United States?

    Here's a hint:

    most bars in the US are in towns and suburbs where they are not served by public transit, AND, the are required to have parking spots for all their customers.

    If ever there was a business that should be forbidden to have customer parking, it's a bar.

    Of all the things about liquor laws in the US, this is the most insane.