Under investigation

Convicted Driver Insurance

Smonky18

Member
Good Morning,
I was arrested on Wednesday.
I had met a friend and had a large glass of Rosa Wine, she was driving and after dropped me home at 3pm.
Stupidly at 4.30pm I got in my car and drove to shops to pick up a prescription for my elderly mum.
However I hit a post in the car park in front of the shops. The shop assistant came out to check I was OK, and then called the Police. Police officer said they could smell alcohol so was taken to police station. I blew 48.
I was diagnosed in May with breast cancer and underwent Chemotherapy until end of November, ( haven't had alcohol drink until Wednesday), chemotherapy does not ride well with drinking, followed by Mastectomy December 18th.. I was told due to op not to drive between 3-6weeks due to limitations in movement of arm as lynth nodes were also taken( day of accident was 2nd day I had started driving).
I am still on certain drugs for cancer every 3 weeks until August 22.
Long story short.. they tried to take bloods but my veins are pants and I do have a port in my chest for bloods and chemo, but you have to be a trained cancer nurse to use this. As they couldn't get blood I did a urine sample.
I was interviewed, released and now I'm in no man's land as not sure of outcome. I understand I was over the limit, my frame is petite, 5ft and nearly 7 stone..
So I suppose my question is do they take into account Chemotherapy drugs? My build? I haven't had a drink since June 21.. I also take painkillers. Obviously the stress of cancer over 6 months has not been easy and now this 🙄 Thank you in advance if anyone can offer me guidance
 
Hi, I’m not sure if they will take any of that into account. I can only speak from my own experience, but I’m not sure it’s helpful to go down the road of trying to excuse/justify. If you do go to court then the court wants to be sure that you won’t do it again, and taking full responsibility goes some way in their eyes.

This forum has been a Godsend to me. It made me realise that although I’d done an awful thing, there were others like me and we aren’t bad people. I’m sure you’ll get lots of advice here.

I’m sorry to hear about your cancer. I hope you recover well. Take care.
 
So stupid is right, you might get a bit of sympathy fro the magistrates but it will have little effect on your ban.
BUT
There is a glimmer of home, you say you blew 48 at the station, but then did a urine sample… can you clarify that. If you provided 2 samples of breath on the machine they would not ask for a urine sample. Did you only manage one, or was the 48 in fact on a handheld device and the main machine was not used?
Can you say when you last had a drink, what time after that you blew the 48, and what time gap was there after than before the urine sample was taken?
I am guessing that you are a female……
 
Last drink (large Rosa wine) was about 1.30- 2pm, dropped home by friend at 3pm.
But then just before 4.30pm, stupidly I got in my car to go to shops. Accident was just after 4.30pm, police got there approx 5.15pm Breathalysed at around 7pm at station , 1st reading was 52, 2nd reading 48. ( I did tell them all Chemotherapy drugs I was on, which is no excuse for drink driving).Then at 9pm the said they wanted to take bloods but failed ( my veins), so took urine about 9.45pm as nurse had been trying since 9pm for bloods 🙄.
I do understand that I will not get sympathy from the courts, which is so understandable If you do the Crime, you do the time 😪however one thing keeps going over in my mind, is when they eventually interviewed me the police officer said "IF this goes to court then you need to be honest in your statement ", which of course I was, as to me I had blew over the limit.
Just wondering why wasn't I charged then? and why try to take blood if clearly I was over the 35.. In my previous post I feel I am in no man's land with being "released under investigation."
Hope this makes sense 😞.
 
II am still puzzled, because if you supplied 2 samples of breath that were within the acceptable range - which yours were- they would have no reason (or indeed legal right) to require you to provide a blood or urine sample.

Assuming you are female (are you?) then 5 hours after you finished drinking, the breath sample at 7pm indicates that you had about 4 units of alcohol in your body which is more than you said that you drank… yet you should have eliminated the alcohol in a 350ml glass…. Just how big was the ‘large Rosa?’

Now the better bit, given that 2 3/4 hours had gone by before they took the urine sample, it should end up with the urine sample being under the limit.
Also tell me about the urine sample. How did they do it (well I know how you did it !) I mean tell me about the timing. You should provide 2 samples, with a clear gap between the two, and the first one is discarded. Is that what they did? And were you offered one of the samples, assuming that the second one was divided into 2 parts.
Did they give you a copy of the printout from the breath test machine?
Did they tell you why they wanted blood after a positive breath test?
Is there any chance that they suspected that you were driving under the influence of drugs as well (perhaps related to the Chemo meds that you told them about?)
 
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Last drink (large Rosa wine) was about 1.30- 2pm, dropped home by friend at 3pm.
But then just before 4.30pm, stupidly I got in my car to go to shops. Accident was just after 4.30pm, police got there approx 5.15pm Breathalysed at around 7pm at station , 1st reading was 52, 2nd reading 48. ( I did tell them all Chemotherapy drugs I was on, which is no excuse for drink driving).Then at 9pm the said they wanted to take bloods but failed ( my veins), so took urine about 9.45pm as nurse had been trying since 9pm for bloods 🙄.
I do understand that I will not get sympathy from the courts, which is so understandable If you do the Crime, you do the time 😪however one thing keeps going over in my mind, is when they eventually interviewed me the police officer said "IF this goes to court then you need to be honest in your statement ", which of course I was, as to me I had blew over the limit.
Just wondering why wasn't I charged then? and why try to take blood if clearly I was over the 35.. In my previous post I feel I am in no man's land with being "released under investigation."
Hope this makes sense 😞.

You said in your first comment you met your friend for one glass of Rosé. Unfortunately the maths doesn't add up on this one, a large glass of rosé at typically 9-11% would not give you a breath reading of 48 at 7pm. There are around 3 units in an 11% glass. This means if you drank it at 2pm you would have blown 0 at 6:30pm, 0 at 6pm if you had it at 1:30pm. You lose one unit of alcohol per hour starting half an hour after you've drank your first drink. If this really is all you had to drink then speak to your doctor asap about how your chemo medication may be effecting your body's metabolism.
 
You said in your first comment you met your friend for one glass of Rosé. Unfortunately the maths doesn't add up on this one, a large glass of rosé at typically 9-11% would not give you a breath reading of 48 at 7pm. There are around 3 units in an 11% glass. This means if you drank it at 2pm you would have blown 0 at 6:30pm, 0 at 6pm if you had it at 1:30pm. You lose one unit of alcohol per hour starting half an hour after you've drank your first drink. If this really is all you had to drink then speak to your doctor asap about how your chemo medication may be effecting your body's metabolism.
To be honest, I did tell the police, do you think the chemotherapy could affect things. I also gave them a list of what I am on.
And it was a large glass, which at the time I did think surely I would be OK when they breathlizerd me. My chemotherapy, touch wood, although brutal has been OK. and you feel like poo anyway. But I made a mistake thinking after my op I would be fine and have a drink ( my last dose of Tazusmab was 6 days before), which does mean my body is pants anyway.. 🙄. Thank you though for your advice.
 
II am still puzzled, because if you supplied 2 samples of breath that were within the acceptable range - which yours were- they would have no reason (or indeed legal right) to require you to provide a blood or urine sample.

Assuming you are female (are you?) then 5 hours after you finished drinking, the breath sample at 7pm indicates that you had about 4 units of alcohol in your body which is more than you said that you drank… yet you should have eliminated the alcohol in a 350ml glass…. Just how big was the ‘large Rosa?’

Now the better bit, given that 2 3/4 hours had gone by before they took the urine sample, it should end up with the urine sample being under the limit.
Also tell me about the urine sample. How did they do it (well I know how you did it !) I mean tell me about the timing. You should provide 2 samples, with a clear gap between the two, and the first one is discarded. Is that what they did? And were you offered one of the samples, assuming that the second one was divided into 2 parts.
Did they give you a copy of the printout from the breath test machine?
Did they tell you why they wanted blood after a positive breath test?
Is there any chance that they suspected that you were driving under the influence of drugs as well (perhaps related to the Chemo meds that you told them about?)
 
The chemotherapy may have stopped your body from eliminating alcohol, but it will not manufacture alcohol in your body. As has been pointed out, 48 in breath is about 4 units for a woman, at 7pm.
 
I totally agree with Grice, something does not add up here. You have to remember, we are not judge and jury, we are here to help. We need the full facts, not the edited facts to try and help.

In my considered opinion, anybody (including those with petite frame and on strong cancer treating drugs) who had 1 glass of wine would not fail a breath test after so long (5 hours after last drink).

Suffice it to say, even if you had drunk a bottle of average Rose wine at say 11%, 8.5 units of alcohol roughly, finishing at 2pm, the level of alcohol in your body would be pretty low by 9.45pm so you would more than likely be OK if they were going by the urine test. But I'm unsure why you had the urine test for alcohol if you had already supplied 2 breath samples over the prescribed limit at the station???
 
Yes I'm female.
Two samples taken..from urine had to stop midstream. They were separated..
I have copy of breath test machine, but no they didn't say why they wanted bloods etc ( to be honest, I didn't ask, as didn't want to make a fuss).
They did take all my chemotherapy medication into account, plus unfortunately chemotherapy takes your hair, so that was embaressing when they search you 🙄.
 
I totally agree with Grice, something does not add up here. You have to remember, we are not judge and jury, we are here to help. We need the full facts, not the edited facts to try and help.

In my considered opinion, anybody (including those with petite frame and on strong cancer treating drugs) who had 1 glass of wine would not fail a breath test after so long (5 hours after last drink).

Suffice it to say, even if you had drunk a bottle of average Rose wine at say 11%, 8.5 units of alcohol roughly, finishing at 2pm, the level of alcohol in your body would be pretty low by 9.45pm so you would more than likely be OK if they were going by the urine test. But I'm unsure why you had the urine test for alcohol if you had already supplied 2 breath samples over the prescribed limit at the station???
This is what I don't understand, why ask for blood? I totally appreciate I was over the limit, which in itself is sole destroying.
Nightmare and thank you for taking the time to reply. 😌
 
To be honest, I did tell the police, do you think the chemotherapy could affect things. I also gave them a list of what I am on.
And it was a large glass, which at the time I did think surely I would be OK when they breathlizerd me. My chemotherapy, touch wood, although brutal has been OK. and you feel like poo anyway. But I made a mistake thinking after my op I would be fine and have a drink ( my last dose of Tazusmab was 6 days before), which does mean my body is pants anyway.. 🙄. Thank you though for your advice.

To be honest with you, you need to be fully honest with yourself. If this is 100% the truth, that this is all you drank and that's the amount of time that passed after drinking it then speak to a doctor. You would need to have tests arranged, get to the bottom of this apparent medical anomaly. Scientifically, you could not have blown 48 after consuming a 250ml glass of Rosé. This is what a pub calls a large glass, a free poured large glass by yourself may be more. But even if you drank half a bottle you would have been under the limit by 7pm, not 0, but well under.

In my own experience, after my arrest I wasn't very truthful with anyone about just how much I drank. It was only after telling someone my breath reading and them saying you don't blow 3 times the limit after a few cans that I started telling the truth. I'm not saying you're lying, I'm just saying it can be hard to face at the start and no one here is going to judge you if it was more.
 
I echo what everyone has said here.

I know it’s awful, and if you were only arrested on Wednesday then it’s still very recent for you. I genuinely think I was in shock for the first couple of weeks after my arrest - and I tried to minimise what I had done because I was so very ashamed...

This is a safe space for you to talk and to get advice, because so many people have been through this.
 
Yes I'm female.
Two samples taken..from urine had to stop midstream. They were separated..
I have copy of breath test machine, but no they didn't say why they wanted bloods etc ( to be honest, I didn't ask, as didn't want to make a fuss).
They did take all my chemotherapy medication into account, plus unfortunately chemotherapy takes your hair, so that was embaressing when they search you 🙄.
It is still a mystery, and the urine samples were not taken correctly. You cannot provide 2 samples by stopping ‘mid flow’, they have to be two distinct samples, separated by at least a few minutes. If they tried to prosecute you on the urine then the case would fail, bus as had been said, the result should be under anyway.
That leaves the breath samples, but your defence would be that they were unreliable…. Otherwise why would the police ask for urine (or Blood?)

I think you should write t the Officer In Charge at the police station where you were detained, requesting that you are supplied with a copy of your custody record and the video relating to your detention. (Do NOT ask for ‘evidence’)
That may shed some Ishtar on what the process was.

Other than that, it is a waiting game to see what the outcome is from the police. In the meantime I suggest you write down everything that you can remember about the events that afternoon / evening, it could be several months before you hear from the police, but there is a limit of 6 months in which they must start proceedings if they want this to go to court or it is ‘timed out’ (plus up to about 6 weeks to serve the paperwork)
 
Certainly one of the most interesting threads i have read on here and i hope you get to the bottom of it all. Price and grice always on the ball so keep the thread safe for future help. (Good luck)
 
I have copy of breath test machine, but no they didn't say why they wanted bloods etc ( to be honest, I didn't ask, as didn't want to make a fuss).
Hello,

May I suggest you consider scanning or photographing your breath machine printout? If you are conscious of privacy, feel free to DM a copy to someone (Price1367 will certainly know what to look at, or myself). We will be able to get to the bottom of whether or not there was an error that forced them to go to blood/urine.

The other possibility, as mentioned, is that the urine was collected for drugs testing as you mentioned painkillers. It does sound like the urine was not collected correctly, however if this was for drugs testing this is unlikely to help a defence as the drug levels in urine don't matter at all.
 
Hello,

May I suggest you consider scanning or photographing your breath machine printout? If you are conscious of privacy, feel free to DM a copy to someone (Price1367 will certainly know what to look at, or myself). We will be able to get to the bottom of whether or not there was an error that forced them to go to blood/urine.

The other possibility, as mentioned, is that the urine was collected for drugs testing as you mentioned painkillers. It does sound like the urine was not collected correctly, however if this was for drugs testing this is unlikely to help a defence as the drug levels in urine don't matter at all.
Thank you, I'm a novice on this.. Why would the urine collected be incorrect. I was told to pass urine, ( a little bit) then stop and use the specimen container midstream. The officer then with the sample put into two tubes, added tablet to both and then took them away.
I contacted my breast clinic yesterday and asked if I can talk to someone there, I had declined counselling before, as I felt I was positive. I emphasise my family have been my support system, even now after Wednesday, they have been great. 😐.
Again I really appreciate all your comments, Truly means a lot to me.
 
The rules on urine samples are strict. Two samples of urine have to be provided within one hour. the first One is discarded. The second one is divided into 2 parts.
They have to be 2 distinct samples, with several minutes at least between them or they are not regarded as 2 samples and therefore inadmissible.
 
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