Canada's high court upholds breathalyzers

OTTAWA, April 17 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court of Canada Thursday upheld two men's drunk driving convictions based on breathalyzer tests they claimed couldn't be accurate.

The judges ruled 7-2 against arguments lawyers for the men from Alberta and Nova Scotia made about the convictions, both stemming from separate incidents and trials in 2003, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., reported.

The man from Nova Scotia said he had consumed 10 bottles of beer over a 7-hour span, and an expert at his original trial testified his blood alcohol level would have fallen within legal limits during that time span.

The Alberta man's claim was similar, although he said he drank six cans of beer over more than four hours.

The high court sided with technology and dismissed claims that factors such as body weight, the amount and pattern of alcohol consumption and age contributed to metabolizing rates, the report said.

"The expert opinion evidence ... did no more than confirm that the accused fell within the category of drivers targeted by Parliament," the justices wrote in the ruling.