Drink driving ban

[PaulB]

My wife came home very upset last night as they've got no option but to fire one of her team. This woman had gone to do a home visit at 2pm on a child and the child's brother had crashed into her car on his bike. Kid and bike are fine but a neighbour called the police. The police breath-ed her and discovered she was at 60 (legal limit 35) and were shocked as they couldn't smell alcohol and she was coherent and unconcerned about being bagged. As she was a nurse, the police bent over backwards to help her and assumed their machine may have been faulty so they went to the trouble of bringing in another machine from another patrol car but this gave the same reading and naturally their attitude changed. Now my wife was in the same office as this woman all morning and can vouch for the fact she hadn't had a drink and isn't known to drink more than socially anyway. The woman swears blind, and everyone who knows her believes her, that she had two normal sized glasses of wine the previous evening and yet she shows up at almost twice the drink-drive limit at 2pm the following afternoon!

So as her job depends on her ability to drive, she'll be fired as there's a mandatory ban and she'll be lucky if it's only a year. Just shows how alcohol affects different people in different ways, doesn't it?

 

[go_slow]

There are a number of reasons why a breath test can give a high result when a person has not been drinking - medication they are on, the amount they exhale into the machine etc. If she was adamant that she had not been drinking then could she not have asked for a blood test to be carried out?

 

[addictfreak]

I dont know the lady in question and dont want to make assumptions. But for two roadside machines to be wrong, would be unlikely. She would also have been taken to the police station and tested on the larger machine, where she would have given two further samples and the lower reading would be the one on which she would be charged.
Im not sure if they still offer you the option of a blood test these days.

Sounds like im an expert, so i must add that i have never been stopped myself and absolutely condem drink driving.

 

[gaz]

the road side machines aren't accurate enough for a conviction, i would doubt that they would use a second machine from a second squad car, just take her back to the station, and use the better machine that is calibrated.

If she was a nurse, no doubt she would ask for a blood test.

 

[purplepolly]

The woman swears blind, and everyone who knows her believes her, that she had two normal sized glasses of wine the previous evening and yet she shows

A lot of people are caught out because their definition of a 'normal' glass differs widely from the governments. This may have been the cause of the problem.

 

[PaulB]

I dont know the lady in question and dont want to make assumptions. But for two roadside machines to be wrong, would be unlikely. She would also have been taken to the police station and tested on the larger machine, where she would have given two further samples and the lower reading would be the one on which she would be charged.
Im not sure if they still offer you the option of a blood test these days.

Sounds like im an expert, so i must add that i have never been stopped myself and absolutely condem drink driving.

I think we are all in agreement about condemning drink driving and she was taken to the station and charged on the lower reading which was still 60 so she hasn't got a leg to stand on. My point is merely to say that if it's right she only had two standard glasses of wine approximately 17 hours before being breathalysed, then it's something those of us who drive should bear in mind. In my younger and wilder days, I was in a car driven by a mate who'd drank, to my knowledge as I was with him all day, seven pints of lager. He was stopped and breathalysed and I started to plan alternative ways home but he got back in the car and drove off. The machine registered he was under the limit and fit to drive!

 

[wafflycat]

If that was me, and I absolutely knew I had not been drinking alcohol, I'd be asking for a proper blood test to be done.

On the other hand, as others have said, what's the probability that two different machines used to test her breath are faulty at the same time? And then again, what many folk think of as a 'normal' glass these days, actually holds quite a lot of alcohol, and just how late into the evening was it consumed..

Of course, the key thing, if your job depends upon you having a valid driving licence, is not to have those two glasses in the first place.

 

[MacB]

If that was me, and I absolutely knew I had not been drinking alcohol, I'd be asking for a proper blood test to be done.

not an option with a reading as high as 60

 

[XmisterIS]

We don't have the full facts of the chain of events here and any number of things could have been the result.

Medication, secret drinking, faulty breathalizers, etc.

 

[wafflycat]

Why should a request for a blood test be refused?

 

[swee'pea99]

It's a toughie - and I can't see anyone 'winning' out of this situation. A good nurse is not something 'we' want to discard lightly. I'm baffled as to why the police breathalysed her in the first place. The kid crashed into her - why was she tested? It also seems odd that a nurse didn't ask for a blood test, especially if she was convinced of her innocence. And even though our metabolisms undoubtedly vary, I thought the rule of thumb is that you lose a unit an hour, so even if they were large glasses, how she had any alcohol left in her system after 17 hours is, well, odd. Isn't it?

 

[gaz]

the 1 unit per hour depends on a LOT of things. so it's best not to go by that. espcially whilst sleeping, the break down of alcohol in your blood stream is slowed down.

 

[Scoosh]

It also seems odd that a nurse didn't ask for a blood test, especially if she was convinced of her innocence. And even though our metabolisms undoubtedly vary, I thought the rule of thumb is that you lose a unit an hour, so even if they were large glasses, how she had any alcohol left in her system after 17 hours is, well, odd. Isn't it?

They test anyone involved in any way nowadays - and probably check over the vehicle too.

 

[marinyork]

If one believes the story, one needs her to get tested to whether she has a medical condition that produces lots of alcohol. It has been found in other people before very rarely. It's one of the reasons why quite a few people don't support a reduction in the limit, or not below 20mg in a decilitre of blood.

It has to be said that under much of the population's definition of two glasses of wine, the machine read fairly much what you'd expect if the alcohol hadn't been broken down.

 

[addictfreak]

This might clarify the blood test situation



What happens if the roadside test is positive, or you refuse, or you can't give the necessary sample? If any of these happen you will be arrested and taken to the police station. At the police station you will usually be asked to provide two specimens of breath for analysis (using approved evidential instruments either an Intoximeter EC/IR; Lion Intoxilyzer; or Camic Datamaster). If the two readings differ then the police must rely on the lower reading. If the reading is over the prescribed limit then you will have committed an offence and you will be charged.
You do not have a right to insist on supplying a sample of blood or urine instead. If you fail to supply a breath specimen at the station you will committed an offence, unless you have a reasonable excuse. Being too drunk or unfit to supply the necessary breath specimen is NOT a reasonable excuse. A medical condition which prevents you from supplying enough breath for the machine to sample may be a sufficient excuse. If you have such a condition you must advise the police at the time.
The police may legitimately request that you provide a specimen of blood or urine as an alternative to a breath test, if :-

1. No automatic measuring device is available at the time of your arrest, or it is not working properly.
2. The offence involves drugs and the police officer has taken medical advice that your condition may be due to drugs.
3. The police officer making the request has reasonable cause to believe that breath samples should not be requested for health reasons

http://www.lawontheweb.co.uk/crimedrinkdriving.htm