Alcohol and Drug Testing for Serious Vehicular Crimes in Ohio

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How are alcohol and drug testing used in serious vehicular crimes in Ohio? I'm Shawn Dominy, I'm a criminal defense lawyer with the Dominy Law Firm in Columbus, Ohio, and this video is going to answer that question.

If there is a serious vehicular crime like vehicular homicide or vehicular assault, there is often alcohol and/or drug testing done in those cases. And that's because alcohol and drugs can impair a person's ability to drive. There are three different types of testing: blood testing, urine testing, and breath testing.

Blood testing is typically done in the hospital, and it's actually very common in these cases. What's interesting about blood testing is that the person either needs to consent to the blood test, or the law enforcement needs to get a warrant to draw the blood. Something else that's interesting is that blood test can be done either at the hospital or at a crime lab. And the rules for admissibility for those tests are different depending on which test was done.

The second type of testing is urine testing. Now, most states don't use urine tests, but Ohio still does. Something about urine testing that you should know is that for a urine test to be admissible in court, the prosecutor has to prove that the test complies with all of these state regulations, and they're a lot of them. And we find that sometimes the test hasn't complied with those regulations, and so the test gets thrown out. And, even if the test is admissible, we can still challenge the accuracy of the test.

The last type of test is a breath test. And we don't see breath test too much in serious vehicular crimes, because they aren't done at the hospital, they're done at law enforcement agencies, but we do have some cases where a breath test was done because our client was in fact taken to a police station. The breath tests, like the urine test, is subject to those regulations, which are issued by the Ohio Department of Health. And the prosecutor has to prove that the test complied with all those regulations. And again, even if the test is admissible, we are allowed to challenge the accuracy of the test results.

If you've been charged with vehicular homicide or vehicular assault and you had to give a blood, breath or urine sample for testing, then this is very important to you. There are a lot of other issues related to serious vehicular crimes that are important to you as well if you're in that situation. So, if you are, we encourage you to find out as much as you can about your situation before you take any action. And our website is a good place to do that, because we have several pages about vehicular homicide and vehicular assault. We also have many videos about those topics on our YouTube channel. And, finally, we have two books: the Ohio Vehicular Homicide Guide and the Ohio Vehicular Assault Guide. So you may want to check those out as well.

If you do your research and you'd like to talk with us about representation, there are a couple of ways you can reach us. You can call the number on the screen, or you can submit a contact form on our website. Either way, we look forward to talking with you, and we hope you find this information is helpful.

For more information about Ohio Vehicular Homicide and Ohio Vehicular Assault, see the videos on the Dominy Law Firm YouTube channel and the written information on the Dominy Law Firm website (https://www.dominylaw.com/). You may also want to read our books: the Ohio Vehicular Homicide Guide and the Ohio Vehicular Assault Guide.

Dominy Law Firm
7716 Rivers Edge Dr., Suite B
Columbus, OH 43235
614-717-1177