What does a .08 actually mean?
Florida's DUI statute has two independent routes to a conviction. One is impairment of normal faculties. The other is a breath or blood alcohol level at or above 0.08. The State can proceed on either, and it doesn't have to prove both.
That's why the number matters so much and why so much of DUI defense concerns the instrument rather than the driving. A person who drove perfectly and performed well on the roadside can still face the second route if the reading is above the threshold.
Two things worth understanding about the measurement. It's expressed as a ratio of alcohol to a volume of breath, and it relies on an assumed relationship between breath and blood alcohol that isn't identical in every person. And it measures a moment — the moment of the test, not the moment of driving.
That second point is the basis of a real defense in the right facts.
The number describes when you blew, not when you drove. ---
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