Scientist says surveys blocked by Ministry

Press, 18 August 1984, Page 7

Scientist says surveys blocked by Ministry

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington The assertion that bureaucrats in the Ministry of Transport are preventing breath-alcohol surveys of drivers for political reasons has been made by Dr G. A. Thomson, a scientist with the Ministry’s traffic research branch. He told a road traffic safety seminar in Wellington that his views were his own and “undoubtedly do not reflect the views of the Ministry.” Not only researchers, but also enforcement staff, traffic and road engineers, needed the information such surveys would provide. However, counter-

measures against alcoholimpaired drivers had been designed from a position of ignorance, and so there had been few successes in the last 30 years. - “This must change,” Dr Thomson said. “The Ministry of Transport won’t allow me to perform these surveys for political reasons. “Therefore, if any other organisation would care to sponsor these surveys, I would gladly agree to perform them, and also applaud such a responsible attitude,” he said. “At present, bureaucrats in the Ministry are not allowing such a research project to proceed. Questions should

be asked what their motives are for such a stance.” However, the retiring Secretary for Transport,.Mr A. J. Healy, said the way such research was being proposed was unacceptable. He saw the need for more research and said the idea was very laudable in its objectives. “If a proposal was put to me for random sampling of drivers for research, then the sampling would need to be done in an acceptable way and not just shoving a bag through a car window to blow into,” Mr Healy said. • He declined to elaborate further on what means might or might not be ac-

ceptable. Dr Thomson said it was appalling that millions of dollars had been spent around the world to cope with alcohol-impaired drivers, with little measurable success in reducing the problem. This state of affairs could be improved by providing an enlarged knowledge base, which in turn might lead to a focusing on different counter-measures. However, he said, if the knowledge base were to be enlarged with useful information, breath-alcohol surveys run in conjunction with a measurement of driver behaviour were needed.