When a law-enforcement officer has reason to believe a person has committed an offense prohibited by section two of this article or by an ordinance of a municipality of this state which has the same elements as an offense described in said section two of this article, the law-enforcement officer may require such person to submit to a preliminary breath analysis for the purpose of determining such person's blood alcohol content. Such breath analysis must be administered as soon as possible after the law-enforcement officer has a reasonable belief that the person has been driving while under the influence of alcohol, controlled substances or drugs. Any preliminary breath analysis required under this section must be administered with a device and in a manner approved by the department of health for that purpose. The results of a preliminary breath analysis shall be used solely for the purpose of guiding the officer in deciding whether an arrest should be made. When a driver is arrested following a preliminary breath analysis, the tests as hereinafter provided in this article shall be administered in accordance with the provisions thereof.
W. Va. Code § 17C-5-5
Preliminary analysis of breath to determine alcoholic content of blood
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Patricia S. Reed, Comm., W. Va. DMV v. Jeffrey Hill (2015)
Most recently applied in Pat Reed, Commissioner of the WV DMV v. Joseph M. Winesburg (March 2019)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: West Virginia Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain West Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.