Breathalyzer tests upgraded

THE City of uMhlathuze technical services committee recently raised questions about drunken driving cases, after it was found that the previous breathalyzer machine results were inconclusive.

This comes after government relaunched the Evidential Breathalyzer Test, which has been modified to provide more accurate results following a high court case that challenged the machines’ competencies as well as those of traffic officers.

While blood testing is one of the most reliable forms to measure blood alcohol concentration, the correct use of the breathalyzer tests is more cost effective and is able to provide instant results.

But on 9 September 2011, Judge Erasmus found that the State had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that results produced by a specific Drago Alco breathalyzer test were inconclusive proof that the accused, Clifford Hendricks, was driving over the limit.

The machine had been challenged in court on the grounds that it provided unreliable evidence and the matter was brought forward as a test case before the high court.

The accused disputed the State’s evidence saying that the test was carried out incorrectly and that the machine was not functioning correctly.

He claimed that the constitutional law grounds were that breath alcohol does not establish a scientific correlation between a person’s motor or perceptual skills or person’s driving ability. He also said that breath alcohol and blood alcohol differed from one person to the next.

The judge dismissed the constitutional law argument but examined the scientific aspects of the test.

The court held in order that to prove beyond reason that a person had been driving over the limit, the breathalyzer must exclude any substances that could mimic ethanol, a component in alcohol. Dentures, excessive tobacco, alcohol in the mouth and alcohol vapours in the air had been found to affect the results of the Drago Alco Test.

In that particular case, the court found that the State failed to follow procedures that would ensure that only ethanol was measured on the breathalyzer and not mimicked products.

Given the circumstances, the Evidential alcohol breathalyzer test was reintroduced in April after modifications to the machine

During a recent portfolio meeting, the city’s committee asked whether the court findings would lead to previous offenders requesting that their cases be reviewed. It was indicated at the meeting that this finding only pertained to one case in the region so far.

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