Welcome for new breathalyser

A new breathalyser - producing instant alcohol level results - has been welcomed by the insurance industry, which has lost thousands of rands because of the lengthy delay in obtaining results.

Launched by the Johannesburg Metro Police department this week along with a new test centre in the city centre, the Drager breathalyser is set to cut out the 18-month waiting period for the results of blood alcohol samples and allow a conviction period of one week after an arrest, at the longest.

Arrested drunk drivers will no longer be taken to the police station and then to a district surgeon for a blood sample as part of their arrest, but will instead be brought straight to the test centre, where a docket will be opened and the test done before they are handed over to the police.

The breathalyser will produce five copies of the result, which will be attached to the docket, kept on file and handed to the suspect.

The test centre on the corner of Loveday and Village streets in the city centre will be open all day, seven days a week, and currently has eight testing machines.

The results of the Drager have been approved by legislation as sufficient evidence to convict a drunk driver in court.

Gerrie Gerneke, director of licensing and prosecution, told the Saturday Star that there were between 3 000 and 4 000 arrests of drunken drivers in 2007, but 95 percent of those cases were withdrawn.

"This machine will save time, and the result will be ready to be used in court," said Gerneke.

"Most cases don't go to court. The public does not take us seriously. Arrests are high but convictions are low."

Examples of delayed cases include that of Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata, who was arrested in January 2007 after ramming into a wall. A blood sample was taken from Judge Motata but was released only seven months later.

At the end of 2006, former Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride rolled his car in Centurion. Witnesses alleged he was drunk.

No blood tests were conducted on McBride. The trial will take place only in 2009, but this week, documents relating to the case were stolen from the Pretoria magistrate's court.

By introducing the breathalyser this week, the JMPD aims to reduce accidents over the holiday period and to increase the rate of conviction.

And Refilwe Moletsane, deputy executive officer of the South African Insurance Association, also hopes that the machine will help with the speedy finalisation of claims.

In the past, claims could take up to 18 months to process.

"Across the board, member companies dealing in motor insurance were experiencing the backlog in claims.

"We would have to settle claims up to a year later, and the clients would have to wait all this time. People would have to pay for cars that they would not have the use of. We could not repair or repudiate it," said Moletsane.

She said it has been a problem for a considerable period of time.

Moletsane said the issue had been an item on the standing agenda for a while and had reached such a level that a blood alcohol committee task team had been set up to deal with problems caused by the delay.

Besides delaying the process of the claim, it affected the insurance industry's outstanding claims projection and made it impossible to accurately estimate its underwriting losses.

• This article was originally published on page 5 of Saturday Star on November 08, 2008