What will happen at the police station or hospital?
What will happen at the police station?
Most people who are charged with drink related driving offences are charged with
driving or attempting to drive after consuming so much alcohol that the
proportion of it in his or her breath, blood or urine exceeds the prescribed
limit under section 5 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. It is always important to
remember that if you have found yourself in a custody suite, you should try and
recall and record as much detail of what has been done and said as possible. If
the custody staff and Breathalyzer operator have not completed the procedure
correctly it may lead to the court not proceeding with the conviction.
Most straightforward excess alcohol convictions follow the arrested person
providing a sample of breath on a government approved device. The breathalysers
in police stations are usually either the Lion Intoxilyzer 6000 or the
Intoximeter ECIR. Once the sample has been provided, if it is above the legal
limit of 35 microgrammes the Crown have the right to seek a conviction under
section 5 RTA 1988 but If the reading is under 40 the Crown Prosecution Service
will usually not proceed with the charge.
Will the police ask me for Blood or Urine samples?
If the reading is 50 micrograms or below the Breathalyzer operator will, if
following the procedure correctly, explain that you have the right to have your
specimen replaced with blood or urine. The officer should not do anything to
persuade or dissuade you in this decision. If you do decide to have the specimen
replaced then it will be for the officer to decide whether the replacement be of
blood or urine.
If the officer decides to take blood he will then call a doctor or health care
professional to take the specimen. Your consent must always be sought and given
before a specimen can be taken. This specimen should be split into two and you
must be offered your own sample so you can have it examined by your own
toxicologist. The other sample should be sealed and then sent to the police
toxicologist.
Typically you will be bailed to re-attend at a date when the sample has been
examined. The legal limit in blood is 80mgs. Two samples taken at the same time
are often not exactly the same. Moreover when the samples are examined, to
account for a margin of error a further 6mgs is deducted from the reading. If
this remains at over 80mgs the police will proceed with a charge. The Crown
Prosecution Service will usually proceed with a charge even if it is only 81mgs.
If the officer decides to take a urine specimen then you should be taken by a
same gender officer to a room to provide a sample of urine. The officer should
use an approved testing kit and the first sample provided should be discarded.
You will be asked to provide a second sample which is the sample that will be
used for analysis. As with blood, this sample should be split in two and you
must be offered your own sample to be examined by your own expert. The other
sample should be sealed and then sent to the police laboratories. Typically you
will be bailed to re-attend at a date when the sample has been examined. The
legal limit in urine is 107mgs.
It should be noted that in certain circumstances such as lack of a suitable
breathalyser machine or medical reasons, the officer can skip the use of the
Intoxilyzer machine and go straight to the option of blood or urine.
What if the procedure is carried out at the hospital?
The procedure that the police have to follow at the hospital is very different
from that at the police station and is quite complex. There is, of course, no
Intoxilyzer machine at the hospital and therefore the procedure involves
roadside breath kits, blood and urine. Issues of lucidity and consciousness are
important, especially in fail to provide cases. Two doctors are involved in the
process and consent from the doctor whose care you are under is an essential
element. Due to the complexity an expert review of the MG/DD/C (the pro forma
completed by the police) would be the best starting point in a case such as this
to assess if the procedure has been completed adequately.