This was a really interesting article on the history of the breath test and drunk driving laws by Wayne Curtis. Hearing names such as Harger, Borkenstein, and Widmark rekindled my interest in the history of DUI case law, and I even laughed when the author commented on the British phrase "drink driving," which has always annoyed me.
But I did notice at least one error. Curtis states that police officers "would ask the suspect to follow the tip of a pencil with their eyes" as far back as 1910. The earliest research regarding nystagmus and alcohol intoxication is found in the 1950s. See, Aschan, G. Different types of alcohol nystagmus. Acta otolaryng. Suppl. 140, 69-78 (1958). The "alcohol gaze nystagmus test" that would later develop into the horizontal gaze nystagmus test (HGN) was not developed until 1977.
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The Breathalyzer's Effect on Drinking & Driving
Eighty years ago, science slipped into the backseat of your car, rolled down the windows, and made itself at home. It has remained there ever since. In 1937, the first drivers were fined for drinking and driving based on evidence from a newfangled device called the “drunkometer.” It could figure out how ...
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