Drink’s Lasting Effect

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31052, 6 May 1966, Page 3

Drink’s Lasting Effect

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, May 5. Drinking drivers ought to be made aware that alcohol could remain in the bloodstream 12 to 15 hours after it had been consumed, Mr T. A. Ross, S.M., said today.

He was hearing a case in which a man admitted consuming a considerable quantity of liquor the day before he was involved in a collision which resulted in his being charged with driving while intoxicated. Accused said that on the day of the accident he had shared two bottles of beer with four other persons.

A doctor after clinical tests had maintained that the issue of his fitness to drive should be decided by scientific tests. These had shown a blood alcohol content of 190 milligrams per 100 millilitres. The Magistrate said that this alcohol level was sufficient to have impaired accused’s faculties to such an extent as to render him incapable of driving safely. The Magistrate said that he was entitled to take judicial notice of the legislation of other countries. In Western Australia the Court presumed a person unable to drive safely where a test showed a blood alcohol content of 100 milligrams per 100 millilitres. Any authority would consider that accused’s test showed an unsafe level.

The Magistrate said that he was bound to make his decision on the evidence of the Government Analyst. He sentenced Roualey Archie Muir, aged 35, a brew-

ery worker, to 10 days’ imprisonment and disqualified him from driving for three years. On a charge of having no driver’s licence, Muir was convicted and ordered to pay Court costs. The charge arose from a collision at Merton on March

29. The hearing had been adjourned from Palmerston after the completion of evidence for the prosecution. Defence witnesses today attributed the collision to the car driven by Muir skidding on the slippery road surface and going partly over the centre line of the road.