Blood Tests Not Favoured

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31161, 10 September 1966, Page 3

Blood Tests Not Favoured

(N Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Sept. 9.

The Parliamentary Road Safety Committee has advised the Government not to introduce compulsory blood tests for motorists suspected of drunken driving, and has ruled that breath analysers are insufficiently developed and urine tests unsatisfactory.

In its report tabled in Parliament today the committee said it did not recommend the introductionn of compulsory blood testing because of: —

The difficulty of taking a sample of blood from a non-consenting and perhaps violently resisting suspect without exposing him to the risk of injury.

The difficulty of obtaining, within a time that would produce meaningful results, the service of a doctor or other person qualified to take a blood sample.

But the committee said the Transport Act should be amended to provide for the taking of blood tests on a voluntary basis. The committee said it was claimed during its investigations that intoxicaton was the primary cause of 300 accidents last year and the consumption of alcohol was believed to be a factor in a further 1304 accidents. The committee said it was i satisfied that the consumption of a particular quantity of alcohol by different people over an identical period of time would result in different blood alcohol levels because the rate at which alcohol was absorbed into—and eliminated from—the blood varied from individual to individual. The committee said the Transport Department said that in 1964 the cost of accidents reached “the staggering total” of £l7 million—and this was a conservative estimate.

“It is not possible to put any cost on the suffering and 11.871 fatal or injury accidents that occurred during 1965.” it said.

The Transport Department should investigate a system of speed zoning on 10-mile graduations from 30 to 60 m.p.h., said the report. “There is a case for in-

creasing the maximum speed limit in appropriate circumstances,” it said. Improvements to roads meant the 55 m.p.h. limit was inappropriate in some cases—particularly on motorways. “Nevertheless, the severity of accidents increases signicantiy as speed rises,” said the report. “In 1965, in built-up areas with a 30 m.p.h. speed limit. 208 out of 8325 injury accidents were fatal but in nonbuilt up areas with a speed limit of 55 m.p.h., 286 out of 3546 injury accidents resulted in death.

“This disparity could be expected to increase if speed limits were raised,” it said. “A worth-while reduction in accidents can only be exexpected with the full co-oper-ation of the public and when the stigma of social disapproval for careless driving replaces the sympathy so often evident today,” the committee said. «

Other major recommendations by the committee were: That the courts should be empowered to direct any driver convicted of an offence in connexion with the driving of a motorvehicle to undergo a driving test. That the Transport Act be

I amended to increase from three months to six months the maximum term of imprisonment for a second or subsequenl offence of driving while disqualified. i That where it is in the interests of smooth traffic flow and road safety, the Minister of Transport should be empowered to impose a minimum speed limit for the right-hand lane on roads where there are more than two lanes for traffic travelling in the same direction. , That the Traffic Regulations overtaking at “no passing” lines provided the overtaking vehicle does not encroach on or cross the continuous line indicating the prohibition on overtaking. That the regulations be amended to provide that no driver shall drive at such a slow speed or jn such a manner as to impede the normal and reasonable movement of other vehicles. A "points system” leading to possible disqualification a period for drivers convicted frequently of accident-promoting offences.