The breathalyzer showed significantly too high readings. The device had been blown 17,000 times, while the service shop had previously seen meters used 4,000 times.
Hippos set the instructor by Henri Bollström banned from driving after the blood alcohol meter showed more than half a blood alcohol reading at Kuopio racetrack’s raves on Easter Monday. The driving ban was lifted as soon as it was found that the breathalyzer showed significantly too high readings in the test at the service shop.
The central horse sports organization Hippos considers the defective breathalyzer that occurred at the Kuopio racetrack and the resulting driver’s driving ban to be a rare case.
The faulty breathalyzer had been calibrated three months before, but it had been used a lot. The device was found to have 17,000 puffs.
Hippos trotting director Jari Haannimen according to it is already rare that someone is caught with blood alcohol levels in trot tests, let alone that the device is faulty and shows too high readings. He would not draw such a conclusion from the case that the results of the permillimeters could not be trusted in general.
– I don’t remember anything similar. The device had been properly maintained, but it had been used a lot over the years. That was the reason. That device just simply said off the contract, some technical part of it. The professional who did the calibration in the store said that the highest reading he saw was 4,000 blows, says Haanniemi.
The test carried out by a professional shop showed that the breathalyzer showed more than 60 percent too many alcohols when measured from the test gas. The meter was tested with a test gas with a concentration of 0.62 ppm, but the meter showed a result of 1.01 ppm.