Minnesota Supreme Court Rejects DUI Challenges Based On Buggy Software

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."

Comments

Attacking the problem from the wrong end.

[Apuleius]

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.