Promise of 80mg alcohol limit

Press, 24 June 1978, Page 1

Promise of 80mg alcohol limit

PA Wellington Breath tests alone will be ground for drunken driving prosecution if Parliament agrees with the tougher measures to deal with drinking drivers recommended by the Road Safety Committee in a report presented yesterday. The other main change proposed is a reduction of the blood-alcohol limit from lOOmg to 80mg.

The main recommendations include that: — Evidential breath testing should substantially replace blood testing, but a blood test option should remain for drivers who would not accept the breathtest result. Guilt would be presumed for breath-test results over 500 mg of alcohol per litre of breath. For tests between 300 mg and 500 mg a traffic officer might require a blood sample. Only one screening breath test should be required, instead of the previous two.

Grounds for requesting a breath test should be extended to include: (1) suspected consumption of alcohol. (2) Involvement in an accident. (3) A suspected culpable driving offence.

The Minister of Transport should have pow’er to approve evidential breath testing devices. A blood or other body sample may be requested where drugs other than alcohol are suspected.

Compulsory blood samples from drivers involved in accidents should be dropped and, instead, a blood sample should be taken where an enforcement officer asks for it; a doctor considers it appropriate; and from all drivers at hospitals participating in a statistical survey.

No limited licences should be issued for the first month after conviction for a d. inking offence. No limited licences should be issued for second and subsequent offences occuring within five years of the first conviction. A limited licence should be issued for a first offence only where extreme hardship would result otherwise.

The committee proposed increases in fines from $4OO to $lOOO for driving with excessive blood alcohol, driving under the influence, and refusing to supply a blood specimen.

It recommends an increase from $2OOO to $4OOO in the maximum fine for causing death or injury while driving with excess alcohol. It recommends an increase from $lOOO to $3OOO in the fine for aggravated careless driving. The committee, whose chairman is the member for Hamilton West (Mr M. J. Minogue), has made 11 suggestions about ways in which greater safety can be achieved from seat belts.

These Include lowering the age for wearing belts from 15 to eight, requiring middle front-seat passengers to wear a lap belt, and making seat belts compulsory in back seats. The committee expressed its concern about the number of young drivers in accidents. “We have asked the Ministry of Transport to investigate, which we understand is already under way, driver training and licensing procedures,” it said. Drivers in the 15 to 19 age group were only 13 per cent of all drivers, but they comprised 27 per cent of all drivers involved in injury accidents. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said the Government caucus had already decided that the committee’s recommendations should be implemented, and work had already started on drafting a bill which it was hoped to introduce soon.

He gave an assurance it would be given priority in the legislative programme.