NSW: No more drinking and driving in NSW
By Billy Freeman
SYDNEY, Aug 31 AAP - More than 20 years after the introduction of random breath testing,NSW drivers are still technically allowed to "drink and drive" - but the NSW governmenttoday announced it would close the loophole.
Drivers have never been banned from consuming alcohol while behind the wheel, so longas they remained below the 0.05 blood alcohol limit.
Roads Minister Carl Scully today said this was inappropriate, and that legislationwas expected to be introduced to state parliament by the end of the year.
"You can actually drive a motor vehicle whilst consuming alcohol," Mr Scully told AAP.
"Provided you are under the legally required limit, you commit no offence, and I thinkthat's inappropriate."
Research showed that drivers drinking alcohol towards the 0.05 limit became more impairedthan if they reached that level in a pub and then drove, he said.
"So the rising alcohol level is more of a concern than if you're already at (0.05)and get in your car," Mr Scully said.
"We'll make that an offence - three demerit points and a $237 fine."
Mr Scully said the loophole had come to his attention while he was preparing for lastweek's NSW Alcohol Summit at Parliament House.
"That was the benefit of the alcohol summit ... We looked at the laws on drink driving,(and) considered their appropriateness as part of our deliberations and preparations forthe summit," he said.
Queensland and Tasmania already had such legislation.
NSW passed laws earlier this year allowing magistrates to force convicted drink driversto install breathalysers in their cars, known as interlocks.
The devices have been tested, and Mr Scully today announced that, from September 8,courts could order that cars of convicted drink-drivers be fitted with the breathalysers.
Police brought almost 15,000 drink-driving charges in the first half of this year,and Mr Scully said he hoped the interlock device would reduce that number.
"On the eighth of September, if you are convicted of drink driving, the magistratecan impose as part of a range of penalties that, before you get back on the road, you'vegot to have an alcohol interlock device," he said.
"It's designed to reduce re-offending ... This enables magistrates in appropriate casesto say to this person, `You're going to get this period of disqualification, this levelof fine, and before you go back on the road you have to install an alcohol interlock device'."
The device is connected to a car's ignition. To start the car, the driver has to breatheinto the breathalyser. If they fail the breath test, the ignition locks.
AAP wf/gmw/ak/jlw/
KEYWORD: DRINKDRIVE NIGHTLEAD
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