Random breath-testing soon?

Press, 6 May 1983, Page 3

Random breath-testing soon?

PA Wellington Random breath-testing for drivers is expected to start later this year. Traffic officers will have powers to stop drivers at any time, day or night, whether or not they suspect an offence has been committed.

An amendment to the Transport Bill, reported back to Parliament from the Statutes Revision Committee on Wednesday evening, clarifies existing provisions for random testing. The amendment does not change the present legal drink-driving limit of 80mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, or the evidential breath test limit of 500 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath, but it provides stern penalties for persistent offenders who are well over the limits.

Anyone convicted twice within five years, one case

oi which involves an alcohol level of more than 200 mg — more than double the legal limit — will be liable to an automatic minimum disqualification of two years. Banned drivers will then have to attend an alcohol problem assessment centre and prove they are “fit” to have their licences restored.

Broadly speaking, it would take a person 20 drinks an hour without food, or 30 drinks an hour with food, to reach the 200-plus level, the chairman of the Statutes Revision Committee told Parliament. About 1500 New Zealanders are charged with offences involving this level each year.

The committee recommended that a proposal requiring traffic officers to conduct random testing only at “highly visible” places be dropped. It was felt this would provide too many

legal loop-holes, allowing offenders to escape conviction.

The Minister of Justice, Mr McLay, raised the possibility of a further tightening of the law in future, to allow for persistent offenders’ vehicles to be confiscated.

Mr John Lee, chairman of the Council of Civil Liberties, said he had not seen the revised bill, but wondered whether it had not given broader powers to traffic officers and the police than was initially intended.

“We have this problem of the drinking driver, and it is of real social concern, and the council would see in principle the need for a deterrent, but there is also a need for control on the excessive power given to enforcement,” he said. Mr Lee also questioned whether the bill actually changed existing powers of random stopping. The general secretary of the Automobile Association, Mr George Fairbairn, said the bill created a need for guidelines on how traffic officers would use their ran-

dom-stopping powers.

“There is some concern these powers will not be used in a programmed manner. We would maintain that some form of instructions and guidelines be issued to show what procedure traffic officers will follow.” Mr Fairbairn said the move towards assessment of drinking drivers was a step in the right direction. “I think the main thing is that the public must be aware that there is a likelihood of prosecution and conviction, if they are caught driving while alcdhol-im-paired, and that the likelihood of being caught is significant. The Wellington property investor, Mr Bob Jones, who criticised the original bill, said the revised version was still a fundamental violation of the National Party’s supposed role of championing the citizen over the State. “The citizen must now prove he is innocent. He will be bailed up by the authorities and must prove he is innocent,” he said. Mr Jones said the latest

figures showed that many road fatalities were alcoholrelated, but further investigation showed that more than half involved pedestrians. “They were not hit by a drunken driver. They were drunken pedestrians who weaved out into the road. So, can we expect random testing of pedestrians, and if not, why not?”

Superintendent Graeme Lawrence, of the Hamilton ' Ministry of Transport, said yesterday that random breath testing would leave officers and the public in no doubt as to the Ministry’s powers. “Basically it lays it down in black and white and it takes out any doubts in anyone’s mind about what we can do and what we cannot do,” he said. The new laws would help greatly to stop reoffending, which he said was a problem which should have been attacked long ago. Sports club members have also been warned to avoid drinking if they are

driving because traffic officers will be watching clubrooms.

Mr Lawrence said sports clubs could expect to be watched closely.

“With the football season coming on, some of these people seem to think that once the match is over, you drink as much as you like and go and get into your car,” he said.