The recent decision by the National Prosecuting Authority to withdraw or suspend provisionally all cases in which a Drager breathalyser test has been used to measure drivers’ blood/alcohol levels should not be viewed as just another way for drunk drivers to avoid penalties.
This advice comes from Helen Szemerei, CEO of insurance company IntegriSure, who says that South African insurance underwriters have become very vigilant in repudiating claims in a country where “drunk driving has become a socially acceptable practice”.
“The South African insurance industry does recognise the result of breathalyser tests,” says Szemerei. “A written statement from a traffic officer at the scene indicating that the driver appeared intoxicated may also be acceptable for some insurers to reject a claim.”
Some insurance companies go to great lengths to repudiate claims where alcohol involvement is suspected, and in certain cases have even sourced CCTV footage of a claimant in a restaurant or bar prior to an accident. Insurance companies share information with each other. Motorists should also be aware that having a claim dismissed as a result of drinking and driving can also have a significant impact on that person’s ability to find insurance in the future, according to Szemerei, and implications like this should in itself provide some deterrent from drinking and driving.
Szemerei says the recent call to impose a zero tolerance approach on drinking and driving driving in South Africa should be given serious consideration, as it would help to eliminate any confusion over legal alcohol limits and should also help improve road safety standards by reducing the number accidents on our roads.
Research used by the Arrive Alive campaign has indicated that 50 percent of the people who die on SA’s roads have a blood alcohol concentration above the legal limit of 0.05 gram per 100 millilitres.
All court cases where evidence was obtained using the Drager breathalyser device have been provisionally withdrawn by the NPA, pending a high-profile case involving a man who was arrested in January 2010 after the Drager recorded his blood alcohol at 0.95mg per 100ml.
The defendant claims he was not drunk. The case will be heard in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
There have been a number of questions about the German Drager machine’s reliability since its introduction more than ten years ago.
Its use was suspended in Gauteng in 2010 after a forensic investigator tested the Drager on 37 people and found that the results varied enormously, even when testing the same person twice. Among his concerns were that the Drager was affected by ambient temperature, so the results would vary if it was a cold night or a hot afternoon. - Star Motoring