Garda to test drivers for drugs in new year

FROM EARLY in the new year motorists suspected of driving while under the influence of drugs are to be asked to perform a range of roadside physical tests.

The tests, such as balancing on one leg, are part of a crackdown on drug-driving to be announced today by Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar.

Changes to the Road Traffic Bill are to be introduced before the end of next month while the Garda are already receiving training in a range of behavioural tests to determine whether motorists’ driving skills are impaired by illegal or prescription drugs.

The checks will also include walking a straight line and hand co-ordination tests such as touching fingers above the head. Officers will base part of their opinion on observation, particularly on dilation of a driver’s pupils.

Similar tests already exist in other jurisdictions but their introduction in the Republic has been delayed by legal difficulties.

Any driver who fails the roadside impairment test, or who appears to be under the influence of drugs, may be arrested and brought to a Garda station.

Commenting on the new legislation at the weekend, Mr Varadkar said “these new laws will allow us to fast-track measures against drug-driving. It’s already against the law to drive under the influence of drugs, but gardaí­ will soon be able to conduct roadside drug tests. This will make it easier to detect and prosecute drug-driving”.

The new tests will be facilitated by a section of the Road Traffic No 3 Bill, which is being drafted. This legislation will also allow the introduction of R plates under a graduated licence system and pave the way for a plastic card driving licence.

According to the Garda the difference in testing for alcohol is that those tests were based on “specific limits”. Checks for drug use, however, are based on observation of behaviour and ability to control a vehicle.

Research is also under way within Ireland, and internationally, to develop an apparatus which can detect the presence of drug intoxicants other than alcohol in the body in the same way that a breath test can measure alcohol levels.

The Medical Bureau of Road Safety is closely involved in these initiatives, Mr Varadkar said. The bureau is also involved in the training of gardaí at its campus in UCD.

Drug-driving prosecutions have been difficult as cannabis traces, for example, may remain detectable for up to 28 days after use, while impairment may wear off much earlier. The new tests are therefore designed to test for impairment.

At a road safety seminar in Dublin Castle earlier this year bureau chief Prof Denis Cusack said the organisation provided more than 1,400 certifications that drivers were impaired due to drug use in 2009.

But for some reason this had resulted in fewer than 900 convictions in the courts.