NEWSDAY

Friday, April 25 2014

DRUNK drivers may have a way out to beat the breathalyser after a night out.

Tow your car home, and, you can even sit in the driver’s seat while it is being towed.

In a ruling handed down yesterday in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court, a man was freed on a charge of failing to blow sufficient air into the breathalyser apparatus in order to give a reading of the suspected level of alcohol in his breath. The driver, Travis Kirby, told the magistrate that at the time, he was driving a car which was being towed via a rope.

Magistrate Rehanna Hosein, presiding in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court, freed Kirby on the ground that he could not be deemed to be driving a “vehicle” because it was not at the time, mechanically propelled.

Kirby was behind the steering wheel of a car which was being towed by another vehicle, along Cipero Road, near Cross Crossing, San Fernando, at about 3 am on January 18 last.

Kirby, 28, of Bonne Aventure, pleaded not guilty to the charge laid against him by Ag Sergeant Vijay Ramdhanie, an officer trained and certified to administer breathalyser tests.

Yesterday Ramdhanie testified he stopped Kirby while he was driving a car.

The police officer, who said he had tested over 1,000 persons in road blocks for driving under the influence of alcohol, gave evidence from the witness box that he administered the breathalyser test to Kirby, but he failed to blow sufficient breath.

He did so a second and a third time, but Ramdhanie said, he could not obtain a reading. Kirby was handcuffed and taken to the San Fernando Police Station where he was formally charged.