Hillsborough County Sheriff’s announced on their website that there will be a Tampa DUI checkpoint conducted  from 12:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. tonight looking for drunk drivers in Temple Terrace. The Temple Terrace Police Department will have a Breath Alcohol Testing (BAT) Unit working with them in the parking lot of the Sweetbay grocery store located at 8837 N. 56^th Street.

The checkpoint is a part of the Hillsborough County sheriff’s department’s Operation 3D, which was instituted to raise awareness of drunk driving in Tampa and Hillsborough County. The DUI checkpoint is part of the plan to help the sheriff’s face the problems commonly linked to drinking and driving. Checkpoints are not the only plan of action in Operation 3D. The campaign also involves public service announcements, awareness materials and news releases.

The BAT Unit will provide technical support to the Temple Terrace Police Department. The personnel staffing the BAT Unit are usually specifically trained in breath testing and in using the Intoxilyzer 8000. This machine is designed to measure the alcohol content inside a suspected drunk driver’s lungs. The thought process behind this is that it is assumed the concentration of alcohol in the lung air is correlated with a person’s blood alcohol content (BAC). The results of the Intoxilyzer 8000, while used to make an arrest, are just a rough estimate of your BAC.

The level of presumed impairment in Florida is a 0.08. When fractions of a percentage are involved in these tests, it is questionable as to whether or not that breath test result can be counted on to definitively prove a person was driving while intoxicated. If you are arrested following a breath test it is important you have an experienced DUI lawyer evaluate the case against you. Our Tampa DUI attorneys offer a free consultation so you have nothing to lose by just talking to a lawyer and assessing your options.