In a ruling that resolves a split among trial courts in Alcotest-based drunken-driving cases, an appeals court held Wednesday that the person who observes a driver before taking a blood alcohol reading need not be the machine operator but can be “any competent witness.”

As the appeals court conceded, the precedential holding in State v. Ugrovics, A-4906-08, runs counter to language in the state Supreme Court’s seminal opinion last year that approved the Alcotest as scientifically reliable and set guidelines for its use.

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