The Supreme Court ruled that a breath-test result cannot be used as evidence when police failed to offer the driver water to rinse his mouth beforehand. The driver was arrested in December 2023 after being found asleep in a running vehicle in Sejong, and the test recorded a blood alcohol level of 0.081 percent shortly after he awoke.
The court found that omitting the rinsing procedure lacked a proven unavoidable reason, overturned the lower court ruling, and sent the case back to the Daejeon District Court.