DRUNKOMETER
• NEW DRIVING TEST. SAN FRANCISCO, August 1. i Sixty per cent or more of all traf- - fie fatalities and injuries are trace- - able to the use of alcohol at the wrong , time and place, Judge 1-larry H. Porter, of the Illinois Municipal Court lof Eyaniston, told officials of the : Automobile Club of Southern California, where he demonstrated science s ; latest invention to determine clrunk- ) en drivers. i The machine is called the Harger drunkometer, and was recently peri fected by Dr. Rollo N. Harger, of the ■ University of Indiana School of Medi- * cine. Operating on the principle of a -. (breath .test —one of the fiye'tests giv'en to determine dr.unken driving^ — ■ the suspected drunken driver is giv- ■ en a toy balloon into which his breath is discharged. This is then placed on the drunkometer, which determines ' by a chemical process' the exact alcoholic content. “Out of the 60 per cent of drunken drivers involved in traffic accidents, .only 19 .per cent are- sufficiently intoxicated so that by the use of the oldfashioned methods the law-enforcing-authorities have a reasonable chance to convict,” Judge Porter said. This means that the other 41 per cent are being passed, and this is the group that is the most dangerous of all on the highways, declared the judge, who is: also chairman of the National Safety Council’s" committee on tests for driver intoxication. “The dangerous driver?’ he said, “is the man who has had a few drinks, and is absolutely and thoroughly convinced of his own sobriety and of his unequalled driving perfection—the type who insists that he is a better driver when he has had a few drinks than when he is completely sober.’” Such a, driver is not recognised as being drunk by the average police officer or layman because he does not exhibit the objective symptoms of drunkenness in' sufficient degree, and is therefore the hardest one to convict, Judge Porter said. With the- use of the drunkometer more convictions will be obtained by enforcement offi-’ cci's, he believes.
Judge Porter subsequently demonstrated the machine to members of the club and officials in tho club’s auditorium.
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Greymouth Evening Star, 5 September 1938, Page 10
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354DRUNKOMETER Greymouth Evening Star, 5 September 1938, Page 10
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