Retrograde Extrapolation of Blood Alcohol Concentration
![handle is hein.journals/cmlwbl50 and id is 192 raw text is:
Retrograde Extrapolation of Blood Alcohol
Concentration
Justin Noval and Edward J. Imwinkelried*
INTRODUCTION
In 2010, 10,228 Americans were killed in car accidents caused by
alcohol impaired driving.' These deaths comprised thirty-one percent
of the total traffic fatalities for that year.' Sixty-five percent of these
fatalities were drivers with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of
0.08 or higher. These same drivers were four times more likely to
have a prior conviction for driving while impaired than were drivers
with no alcohol.'
Given these sobering statistics, in recent decades state legislatures
have enacted numerous laws to curtail drunk driving. Some of these
laws define new substantive crimes. In the drunk driving area, the
substantive crime statutes fall into two general categories: (1)
traditional, non-per se/impairment statutes, which require the prosecu-
tion to prove that a defendant drove while impaired [or under the
influence] due to consumption of alcohol; and (2) per se statutes,
which require the prosecution to prove only that a defendant drove
with a BAC in excess of a specified level, typically 0.08.s In prosecu-
tions under traditional impairment statutes, the government usually
presents the results from field sobriety tests or the lay opinions of wit-
nesses who observed a defendant's behavior in order to establish the
Noval: J.D., University of California, Davis 2013.
Imwinketried: Edward J. Barrett, Jr. Professor of Law, University of California,
Davis School of Law. This article is based in large part on Mr. Noval's research paper
submitted in Professor Imwinkelried's fall 2012 Scientific Evidence Seminar at the
University of California, Davis School of Law.
INational Center for Statistics and Analysis, Traffic Safety Facts: 2010 Data,
National Highway Safety Traffic Safety Administration, 1 (Apr. 2012), http://www-nrd.
nhtsa.dot.qov/Pubs/811606.pdf. (hereinafter NCSA).
2NCSA, supra note 1.
3NCSA, supra note 1.
4NCSA, supra note 1, at 5.
5Admissibility and Sufficiency of Extrapolation Evidence in DUI Prosecutions,
119 A.L.R.5th 379 (hereinafter Frasier); NCSA, supra note 1, at 1; see Cal. Veh. Code
§ 23152 (a) to (b) (West 2012).
1 2014 Thomson Reuters * Criminal Law Bulletin * Vol. 50 No. 1
188](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/cmlwbl50&div=10&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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