DRUNKEN DRIVER

Evening Star, Issue 22572, 13 February 1937, Page 1

DRUNKEN DRIVER

BLOOD TEST FOR INTOXICATION SAMPLE NOT IN SUITABLE CONDITION [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, February 12. The unusual course of taking a' blood sample with the object of determining whether or not a man charged with driving a motor car while intoxicated was guilty or innocent was adopted in Auckland recently according to evidence given in a case before Mr C. R. Orr Walker, S.M., in the Police Court. Actually the sample was not tested, however, for it was taken, at the Auckland Hospital after 9 o’clock at night, and the blood was not in a suitable condition the next morning when the test was about to be made. The case concerned a motor mechanic, William Ferdon East, aged 29, who was charged with being intoxicated while in charge of a car on January 22. Counsel said that Dr Huse was so satisfied that the defend* ant was sober that he advised him to submit to a blood test,, “My impression was that he was not under the influence of alcohol,”' said Dr A. A. Huse in evidence. Wit* ness explained that when he had communicated with the Auckland Hospital that night he had been informed that they could make the test the next morning. The hospital rang him,however, stating that the test had not been run the previous night, and the sample was then no good. The defendant was fined £2O, his driving license was suspended for the present term, and was cancelled for 12 months beginning with the new license year.