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[Article] Booze Bus to drive drunks off our roads

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02-02-2004 12:28am

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Victor

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http://www.thepost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-708960859-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FNews.asp

Booze Bus to drive drunks off our roads
25/01/04 00:00
By Ed Micheau

Irish motorists may soon be forming an orderly line to take a breathalyser test at a Garda-operated "Booze Bus", the method favoured by police in Australia and New Zealand for drink-driving tests.

The Booze Bus concept, which has been highly successful in tackling drink driving in the Antipodes, is one of the options being considered by senior gardaí who have set an ambitious target of testing 500,000 motorists annually.

The Garda target is part of the government's Road Safety Strategy 2004-2006, which will be published shortly.

The Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, has pledged to introduce legislation aimed at allowing the gardaí to undertake random breath testing.

The testing facility is parked on the side of the road, and passing motorists stopped by police enter the bus for a quick breathalyser test. An automatic reading determines if the motorist has exceeded the legal limit.

The bus, which can be deployed at random across the state, enables police to achieve large volumes of tests. In the state of Victoria in Australia, which has a population of 4.8 million, police carried out over one million breath tests last year.

Eddie Shaw, chairman of the National Safety Council, said the concept deserved due attention. Breath testing 500,000 motorists per annum, or one in four of the driving population, would probably lead to a doubling in the number of arrests for drink-driving offences from annual levels of 13,000.

"Whether enforcement is done by adapting the Booze Bus approach in Victoria or the multi-location approach in Britain or Finland is an operational matter for the gardaí," said Shaw.

"Either way, the early results are likely to be an increase in the number of arrests.

"The aim of random breath-testing is to reduce the incidence of collision deaths and injuries by changing behaviour. The aim is not to increase the number of arrests. The aim is to save lives."

In Victoria, road deaths are down to 70 per one million of population, compared to over 90 per one million in Ireland.

Britain has a ratio of just 60 per one million. Brennan hopes that the random testing will help Ireland get into line with best international practice.

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