Blood Tests For Drivers Favoured

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30587, 2 November 1964, Page 3

Blood Tests For Drivers Favoured

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, November 1. Rlood tests for persons suspected of drunken driving, as advocated by the Road Safety Council, are favoured by the Automobile Association (Auckland).

The secretary, Mr D. L. Perry, said the association would like to see the maximum allowable level of blood alcohol fixed at 150 milligrams, as in Western Australia, but would probably “go along with 100 milligrams” if there was no alternative. The New Zealand branch of the British Medical Association supported the proposal that accurate estimations of blood alcohol from persons accused of driving While intoxicated should be readily available and should be acceptable as evidence in court proceedings, said Dr.

P. Bartley, a member of the executive council of the B.M.A. “Notwithstanding suggestions to the contrary,” said Dr. Bartley, “members of the branch do not presume to suggest that blood tests should be obligatory in every case, or that failure to agree to such a test should constitute an offence." The B.M.A. believed that a fixed level of alcohol content in the blood could not be used to estimate fitness to drive a motor vehicle. Other factors must be taken into consideration as well as the alcohol level.