PORTLAND (AP) – Police departments in Maine are finding it increasingly difficult to get a blood technician to take samples from suspected drunken drivers, making it harder to prove in court that a driver was impaired.

“We’ve actually been unable to prove the case in court because we haven’t had a test that will stand up in court,” said Sgt. Scot Mattox, who supervises alcohol enforcement at the Portland Police Department. “There hasn’t been a lot of cases. There’s only been a handful. My concern is that will grow.”

State law requires that a blood test be taken in any life-threatening car accident. In routine cases, officers administer a breath test which measures the molecules of alcohol in a person’s breath. A breath test isn’t effective in about 10 percent of roughly 10,000 annual cases statewide, police said.

When there is blood present in the accident, as there often is in serious car accidents, a breath test often cannot be taken. The machine also doesn’t work in the presence of cleaning chemicals or radio waves which interfere with readings.

In Portland, blood tests are needed for about 50 of the department’s 500 drunk driving cases each year. In those cases, police summon a blood technician from a list of about eight who have indicated they will work with the department.

But major hospitals, like Maine Medical Center and Mercy Hospital in Portland and Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston will not draw blood for law enforcement purposes, though some smaller hospitals do provide the service.

Portland and Lewiston police have some staff qualified to take blood if no one else can be found. One of Lewiston’s officer’s is a paramedic, and in Portland, Mattox has taken the necessary training as has a department dispatcher.

Mattox said the issue can be important, as it was in the Tukey’s Bridge crash in 2002, which killed three teenagers. In that instance, police were left scrambling to find someone able to perform a blood test.

“How could we have explained to the victims’ families and to the courts how we weren’t able to secure an adequate sample,” he said.

Police can subpoena blood samples taken by the hospital for medical purposes, though they are sometimes inadmissible in court.

Richard Perkins, director of the Bureau of Highway Safety, also said it is rare that the person drawing blood is summoned to court. But that is a concern among some blood technicians and hospitals.

AP-ES-06-22-04 0857EDT