DES MOINES &#8212 The Iowa Court of Appeals on Wednesday overturned the drunken driving conviction of a man because police failed to let him make a phone call after he was arrested.

The court said that the failure to let Thomas J. Tracy make a phone call means the chemical breath test he submitted to should be suppressed.

Tracy was pulled over in Waukee on March 6, 2006, after a police officer noticed him swerving and driving 62 mph in a 45 mph zone, court records show.

The officer also noticed that Tracy smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech.

Tracy was asked to perform field sobriety tests, which court records show he failed.

Tracy made two requests to call a family member to get his van, which was owned by his employer, records show.

The officer told Tracy to wait until after the breath test but ultimately did not allow Tracy to make the call, records show.

The breath test showed Tracy’s blood-alcohol level of 0.172 percent, more than twice the legal limit.

Tracy filed a motion to suppress the breath test contending his right to make a phone call had been violated. The motion was rejected by the district court claiming Tracy did not invoke his right to call a family member because, the court said, his request was out of concern for the van he was driving and not his own well-being.

Tracy appealed the conviction, claiming the district court erred in rejecting his motion to suppress the blood-alcohol test.

The appeals court said evidence shows that Tracy made two requests to make a phone call and that the requests should not be discounted “simply because Tracy did not intimate that the phone calls would necessarily involve advice about what to do