Dayadai Har­ri­paul

Stu­dent,

Hugh Wood­ing Law School

In 2007 the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cles and Road Traf­fic Act Chap. 48:50 was amend­ed to in­tro­duce the breathal­yser law to cit­i­zens of T&T.Sec­tion 70(a)(1) of the amend­ed Act states that no per­son shall dri­ve or at­tempt to dri­ve, or be in charge of a mo­tor ve­hi­cle on a oad or oth­er pub­lic place if he has con­sumed al­co­hol in such a quan­ti­ty that the pro­por­tion in his breath or blood ex­ceeds the pre­scribed lim­it.

The pre­scribed lim­it means a breath al­co­hol con­cen­tra­tion of 35 mi­cro­grammes of al­co­hol in 100 mil­li­l­itres of breath, or such oth­er pro­por­tion as may be pre­scribed.

Po­lice pow­ers

A po­lice of­fi­cer may re­quire a dri­ver or a per­son in charge of a mo­tor ve­hi­cle to pro­vide a spec­i­men of breath for a test at or near the place where the re­quest is made, if he has rea­son­able cause to be­lieve that the per­son has con­sumed al­co­hol above the pre­scribed lim­it.

Rea­son­able cause

A po­lice of­fi­cer can have rea­son­able cause to ad­min­is­ter a breath test where:

�2 He has smelt al­co­hol in the sus­pect­ed per­son's breath;

�2 The sus­pect­ed per­son has slurred speech;

�2 The sus­pect­ed per­son is swerv­ing whilst dri­ving on the road

�2 Where the sus­pect­ed per­son has poor co-or­di­na­tion

How is the breath analy­sis done

A per­son must pro­vide two sep­a­rate spec­i­mens of breath for analy­sis and such spec­i­mens must be pro­vid­ed in ac­cor­dance with the di­rec­tions of an au­tho­rised of­fi­cer.There must be an in­ter­val of not less than two min­utes and not more than ten min­utes be­tween the pro­vi­sion of spec­i­mens and the re­sult. The low­er of the two shall be tak­en to be the re­sult of the breath analy­sis.

Re­fusal to take test

Where a per­son is re­quired by a po­lice of­fi­cer to pro­vide a spec­i­men of breath for a breath test and fails to do so, once the po­lice of­fi­cer has rea­son­able cause to sus­pect that the per­son has al­co­hol in his breath or blood that is above the pre­scribed lim­it, the of­fi­cer may ar­rest the sus­pect­ed per­son with­out a war­rant.

Failed test

If a per­son is found to have a pro­por­tion of al­co­hol in his breath that has ex­ceed­ed the pre­scribed lim­it af­ter a breath test is ad­min­is­tered he may be ar­rest­ed with­out a war­rant and would be sub­ject to pros­e­cu­tion.

Penal­ties

In the case of a first con­vic­tion, the sus­pect­ed per­son is li­able to a fine of $8,000 or to im­pris­on­ment for three years.In the case of a sec­ond con­vic­tion, the sus­pect­ed per­son is li­able to a fine of 15,000 or to im­pris­on­ment for five years and may be dis­qual­i­fied for a pe­ri­od of three years from the date of the con­vic­tion from hold­ing or ob­tain­ing a dri­ving per­mit.If con­vict­ed a third time for a like of­fence, the per­son shall be per­ma­nent­ly dis­qual­i­fied from hold­ing or ob­tain­ing a dri­ving per­mit.