Drive 25 Minutes After Injection
(New Zealand Press Association)
HAMILTON, Feb. 17. The average person is fit to drive a motorvehicle 25 minutes after being injected with an ultra-short-acting barbiturate, methohexital. This was the finding of members of a New Zealand anaesthetic society working in conjunction with a police doctor and two Transport Department instructors, after tests with the drug on 10 people in Hamilton yesterday. Methohexital is used in dentistry and in hospitals as a general anaesthetic. Between three and four tests were made on the 10 volunteers—one before Hie anaesthetic and two to three after—on a Transport Department driving simulator. A sufficient quantity of the barbiturate was injected intravenously to induce a short (two to five minutes) sleep, followed immediately before and after with driving tests.
A reporter and two photograpers volunteered as patients, and found that the immediate after-effect of the drug was one of intoxication. Walking unaided was difficult, vision was blurred, and speech was slurred. Tests made on the driving i simulator, similar in many ' aspects to a late-model 'American car, were to judge i reaction times to braking, I dipping lights and sounding a horn. Average drivers were rated poor immediately after the anaesthetic on the first test, but improved in most cases within 10 minutes. After 15 minutes, reaction times were generally back to normal. The police doctor said in most cases he would give the “benefit of the doubt” as far as the ability to drive was concerned to most people after the second test. He said patients showed “amazingly quick recovery” from the anaesthetic, and
could not'be compared'with i drivers under the influence of alcohol Tests may be made at a later date by the Transport Department to find the effects of alcohol on drivers. The driving simulator was operated by Messrs C. J. Heaven and I. G. Thompson, Transport Department instructors in Hamilton.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 20
Word Count
313Drive 25 Minutes After Injection Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 20
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