Cops to get new roadside breathalysers to catch drivers who sober up BEFORE being tested
Instant results will cut out the delay of taking drink drive suspects back to a police station
COPS are to get new roadside breathalysers to catch drivers who sober up before being tested.
Instant results will cut out the delay of taking them back to a police station.
Positive readings on current portable breathalysers are not usually accepted in court.
But ministers are to launch a competition for firms to invent new ones that will provide admissible evidence.
They hope this will also free up police time.
In 2016 460,000 drivers were tested and 59,000 were positive.
The year before, around 200 people died on UK roads due to drink-driving.
Roads Minister Jesse Norman said: “The drink-drive limit has helped to give us one of the safest road networks in the world but there is always more we can do.
“New mobile breathalyser technology will enable the police to enforce the limit more rigorously.”
The contest begins this summer and it’s hoped the technology will be in use by police in 2020.
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