Drink-drive test to face renewed legal challenge

The use of the Garda intoxilyser faces a renewed legal challenge after thirteen cases involving motorists accused of drunk driving were dismissed when the State refused to provide technical details on the machine to defence solicitors.

Dozens of drunk driving cases in Co Mayo, which had been deferred pending the outcome of this case, will now come before Castlebar District Court today.

The issue arose at Belmullet District Court last Wednesday where Judge Mary Devins dismissed 13 cases of alleged drink driving because the State had refused to provide detailed technical and operating data on the intoxilyser to the defence.

One of the defence solicitors, Michael Bohan, had sought access to the material so it could be analysed by an engineering expert to determine the likely accuracy of readings.

Dismissing the case, Judge Devins said she expected this issue to come before a higher court.

She also made reference to a recent High Court ruling on a previous court challenge to intoxilyser.

In this instance, three drivers accused of failing intoxilyser readings challenged the constitutionality and fairness of the procedures used in relation to the machine.

This was seen as a test case and thousands of suspected drink drivers delayed their cases pending the High Court decision.

In his High Court ruling in September 2004, Mr Justice McKechnie dismissed the plaintiffs case.

However, he stated that a person accused of drink driving has the right to inspect the intoxilyser and to challenge its functioning accuracy.

He also noted that the breath-testing regime included specific protections for the accused.

These include the taking of the lower of the two breath specimens by the Director of Public Prosecutions; the application of the 17.5 per cent deduction from that reading and the right of the accused to apply to the District Court for permission to inspect the apparatus.

Plaintiffs were also entitled to all documentation available in a garda station relating to the intoxilyser.

It was to these points that Judge Devins referred in her ruling last week. She told the court that she was conscious of the court's duty and obligation to protect constitutional justice and fair procedure.

She said the three parties named in her discovery order, An Garda, the Medical Bureau and Lion Laboratories, had chosen to flagrantly refuse to comply with the order to provide the technical material requested.

Judge Devins said she was dismissing the case in light of the State's refusal to provide information as to the how and the why of the machine's fallibility and the provision of a margin of error for the benefit of the arrested person.

Details of this latest challenge to drink driving legislation come less than two weeks after the Minister for Transport told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport he faced constitutional difficulties with regard to introducing random breath-testing.

However, he said he hoped to do so by the end of next year.

Random breath-testing is a key component of the Road Safety Strategy which set a target of reducing road deaths to under 300 per annum by the end of 2006.

Its introduction will require legislation. A Garda campaign to combat drink driving over the Christmas period is due to be launched at the end of this month.

The number of arrests for drink driving over the October bank holiday weekend was up almost 50 per cent this year with 320 people charged.

More than 9,000 motorists have been caught drink-driving by gardaí between January and the end of October of this year.

This is a 15 per cent increase over the same period last year.

So far this year 337 people have been killed on the roads, ten more than during the same period last year.