Can anyone tell me if a breathalyzer test is the first thing the police do at an RTA or only if they suspect that someone's been drinking?
As far as I am aware they do it to all drivers involved in a RTC. Regardless of suspicion of DUI. Don't forget, it's the fault of the Police if you are over
I was taken out on the way in to work on my old zx6r and was breathalysed as part of standard procedure. I pointed out to the office that it was 0730 in the morning to which his response was "yes but you are riding through Tilbury (Essex)". Comedy gold that officer. Needless to say I passed with a big fat 0.0
My taxi driver was pulled over at 8:30am one time. He was breathalysed. He was over the limit. Remember, you can still be over the limit in the morning from the night before.
Yup its a fave of the constabulary up here in Jockland. When the new limits came into force the police were out at just by dark O' Clock in the morning stopping people for "Cough" "road safety checks" and of course breathalyzing everybody. Got quite a few convictions. The Americans have a rather novel approach to this little rouse DUI Checkpoint, Civil Rights Audit - YouTube (for some reason I cannot embed the clip)
@final_edition Not me, this time. Someone managed to smash their car into a lamp post on a traffic island at about 00:45 this morning. Police turned up about 30 minutes later. Then about 25 minutes of standing around. Just asked if he'd been drinking, got him to sign some forms then they drove off But to be fair, that is a tight gap to get through...
It's standard procedure in Devon & Cornwall... Not sure about anywhere else. I got breathalised after my accident even though it was clearly not my fault as the idiot ran straight into the back of me. I know of one guy who got done at 8.00am on the way to work because the car behind him got crashed into and pushed into his - D&C plod breathalise everyone involved in an accident so he got to blow in the bag. Got nicked even though he had been stationary in a traffic queue minding his own business. Just goes to show...
a mate of mine after crashing my bike and lying on a hospital trolly got breathalyzed after the police insisted, nearly killed him as he had a ruptured spleen. in there defense he had only just been taken in and not been checked out yet.
When I got knocked off my 916, a policeman had to follow me to hospital & stay with me until he was told that it was OK to breathalyse me. I could hardly blow, at least he explained that he was sorry & was glad that I was capable of taking the test!
I got knocked off a couple of years ago (broke leg/arm) but wasn't breathalysed even though the dibble showed up, this was 8 am on a weekday so not sure if it's mandatory?
Think it's fairly standard procedure everywhere. As a guide, your body processes about 1 unit of alcohol per hour from the time you stop drinking, so if you have a skinfull of a night you are still more than likely to be over the limit by the rush hour journey the next morning. I drive as part of my job, so don't drink any alcohol at all from Sunday night to Friday night, for me it's just not worth the risk.
Isn't that 1 unit an hour from the time you START drinking? It still means that if you take 3 hours to drink 5 pints, of weak beer, it could be 7 hours after you stopped drinking before you are pretty well dry again. It rather depends on what a "skinfull" is of course!
Well either way on the bodily process for alcohol, I have a case for a police compliant on how they dealt with the situation? I mean, a random person could've been crossing that crossing or a fellow biker on that narrow stretch of road...
All the blurb says to calculate from the time you finish your last drink, so if you have 10 units up to midnight, it could well be 10.00am before your system is clear, there are variables, male/femail, weight, food etc, but as a guide it's nit going to be far out.
