If you are involved in a car accident in New Jersey, and the police officer at the scene believes you were driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, you may be required to submit to a chemical test in order to determine the amount of alcohol or the type of drugs in your system. If you do not require medical attention, the police will transport you to the police station and have you submit to a breath sample. If you are injured at the accident scene, you will be transported to the hospital for medical treatment and your blood will be drawn and analyzed for alcohol and drugs.

Often, it is assumed that the Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) measured after a DWI arrest is equal to or even lower than the BAC of the driver when they were stopped for drunk drive. This in fact is untrue. What most people do not realize is that your body absorbs alcohol at a slow rate. It can take up to 3 hours for your body to absorb the last drink of the night into your system. This means that during the time that elapses after you were pulled over, your BAC percentage is actually growing higher by the minute. It is quite possible to be well under the legal limit of 0.08%, required for you to be considered driving while intoxicated in New Jersey. However, once you get to the police station for a breath test or you are taken to the hospital to get your blood drawn, your BAC level could easily be significantly higher than it was when you were actually driving. Not only is the rising blood alcohol a reality, it may also be a defense in DWI cases in which the defendant was on the border of being over the legal limit. For example, the driver who is under suspicion of a DWI may have a 0.07% at the time of their traffic stop but after the initial stop, the police interview, running the drivers information, administering the field sobriety test, the arrest, the transportation to the police station, the processing at the police station and the twenty minute observational period, the accuse is now blowing a 0.08% BAC making them over the legal level. This could also be the difference between paying the minimal fines because your BAC is below 0.10% and the maximum because your level is above the 0.10% BAC. An experienced lawyer will use this as a viable defense in order to challenge your BAC results.