Garda Breathalisers

Xplor.er

a friend was knocked down and injured by a drink driver the other day.
when the local gardai came they had no breathaliser so had to wait on traffic corp backup that was 25-30minutes away. This delay would have given the drink driver a little time to sober up a bit!
Is it standard procedure for only fraffic corps to have breathalisers?

Locust

When the 'breathaliser' arrived did they test the guy and let him go? Or was he arrested? You'd think most traffic units would carry such apparatus.

BaronVon

Like everything, it boils down to money. Apparently they cost about €1200 a pop.

MagicSean

Xplor.er wrote: »

a friend was knocked down and injured by a drink driver the other day.
when the local gardai came they had no breathaliser so had to wait on traffic corp backup that was 25-30minutes away. This delay would have given the drink driver a little time to sober up a bit!
Is it standard procedure for only fraffic corps to have breathalisers?

If a half an hour is enough to make him pass the roadside breath test he most likely would have passed the station breath test with flying colours even if he'd been tested immediately.

source

Xplor.er wrote: »

a friend was knocked down and injured by a drink driver the other day.
when the local gardai came they had no breathaliser so had to wait on traffic corp backup that was 25-30minutes away. This delay would have given the drink driver a little time to sober up a bit!
Is it standard procedure for only fraffic corps to have breathalisers?

The initial breath test at the road side is just and indicator to the Garda that there is alcohol in the system, it gives three readings, zero, warn and fail.

Depending on the result the person is then brought back to the station where he has to be observed for 20 minutes to make sure he doesn't ingest anything. Then the evidential breath test is performed on an intoxyliser. This measures accurately the level of alcohol in the person's breath. The Gardai have 3 hours by law to do this.

If the sample isn't taken within 3 hours of driving, bye bye case.

Alcohol leaves the system at about 1 unit per hour. so 20 mins shouldn't have made much of a difference.

CaseyRyback

Xplor.er wrote: »

Is it standard procedure for only fraffic corps to have breathalisers?

No. But what you describe is very common. So mobiles will carry breath boxes, some won't. They get taken out, mislaid, left in other mobiles, left in stations, broken etc. So not every car will have one. In an ideal world maybe.

Xplor.er

Locust wrote: »

When the 'breathaliser' arrived did they test the guy and let him go? Or was he arrested? You'd think most traffic units would carry such apparatus.

thanks for the replies lads. locust he was arrested when they eventually got to breathalise him.

Hooch

foinse wrote: »

The initial breath test at the road side is just and indicator to the Garda that there is alcohol in the system, it gives three readings, zero, warn and fail.

Four readings.....Zero, Pass, Alert and Fail.

source

always bloody do that, since day bloody 1 I keep saying 3.

Dymo

NGA wrote: »

Four readings.....Zero, Pass, Alert and Fail.

What do the middle 2 mean, Pass and Alert and what happens?

CharlieCroker

Dymo wrote: »

What do the middle 2 mean, Pass and Alert and what happens?

Pass means alcohol taken but "safe" while alert means the driver is within 5mg of the legal limit.

hardCopy

CharlieCroker wrote: »

Pass means alcohol taken but "safe" while alert means the driver is within 5mg of the legal limit.

Would an "alert" result in someone being brough to the station for confirmation?

CharlieCroker

If the guard believes that the driver is over the limit.

The alcometer is not evidential, it's a tool to assist the guard in forming their opinion the the driver is over the limit.