As you undoubtedly know, the Lone Star State has some substantial penalties for driving while impaired. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, these penalties include a fine, the loss of driving privileges and even jail time.
To know whether you are driving while impaired, officers are likely to ask you to breathe into a testing device. This device measures your blood alcohol concentration, which is the amount of alcohol you have in your system. Can putting a battery in your mouth confuse a DWI breath test, though?
Urban legends
When it comes to DWI breath tests, there are many urban legends you should not believe. A popular one suggests that sucking on a battery can interfere with the test, causing it to give inaccurate readings. Like other urban legends, this one is also untrue. Indeed, putting a battery in your mouth neither changes your BAC nor alters a breath test’s results.
Health hazards
There is no legal reason ever to put a battery in your mouth. From a health perspective, however, sucking on a battery can be quite dangerous. Indeed, any battery that is small enough to fit into your mouth poses a choking risk to you. Moreover, because many batteries have acid in them, having a battery in your mouth might cause you to suffer a potentially catastrophic burn.
In addition to the health hazards you face when inserting a battery into your mouth, the battery is likely to raise the suspicions of officers even higher. Ultimately, rather than pinning your hopes on an untrue battery myth, you probably should invoke your legal rights during any DWI stop.
