Seanad debates

Wednesday, 14 June 2006

Road Traffic Bill 2006: Committee Stage.

 

11:00 am

Photo of Feargal QuinnFeargal Quinn (Independent)

Amendment No. 32 calls for a new section to be inserted at page 6, after line 34, specifying that a member of the Garda Síochána "who attends the scene of any road accident, may, and as far as practicable shall, require the driver of any vehicle involved in the accident to provide (by exhaling into an apparatus for indicating the presence of alcohol in the breath) a specimen of his or her breath". I tabled this amendment on foot of a recent report that surprised me. According to that report, there is no legal requirement on the gardaí to take a breath test after an accident. The result is that sometimes it happens and at other times it does not, which is quite an unsatisfactory situation. Perhaps the Minister of State will put me right, but my amendment seeks to close that gap and to place an obligation on the gardaí who attend an accident scene to take breath tests from any driver involved.

I put in the words "as far as practicable" to cover the situation in which it is not always possible to take the test, for example, where a driver is severely injured and all the focus is on getting him or her to hospital as soon as possible. That type of situation aside, however, everybody will agree that the gardaí should be required to take breath tests at the scene of every accident. Perhaps I have not read the Bill correctly, but it seems to me there is no onus on the gardaí to do that, and that is the reason for the amendment.

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