DUBAI: Dubai police have bought two new testing devices to check the level of alcohol in the blood of motorists as part of their crackdown on drunk driving.
The number of drunk driving cases rose dramatically this year compared to the previous one. Salah Bu Farousha, head of Dubai Traffic Public Prosecution, said yesterday that the there was a 70 percent increase in the cases between the first quarter of 2007 and 2008. He added that currently the traffic courts are witnessing around 100 cases a month.
The UAE has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to drunk driving, Bu Farousha pointed out. He added that the prosecution always asks for the harshest punishment to be applied against violators. The UAE law states that anybody found driving under the influence of alcohol should be fined AED20,000 and jailed for not less than one month. The offending driver’s license is also suspended for three months and the vehicle is impounded for 60 days. If the drunk driver caused an accident then the jail term and the fine would go up.
According to Col. Ahmad Matar Al-Mehairi, director of the Forensics Department at Dubai police, the two new devices facilitate testing of suspects. One of the devices will be located in the Deira area while the other will be in Bur Dubai.
“Before any suspect would wait overnight in the police station and then would be taken to the forensics lab for a test,” he said. “The devices will help in that the tests would be done in the police stations.”
Testing the following day is not an effective measure for collecting proof because the body removes alcohol from the bloodstream in a matter of hours.
Blood or breath analyses require suspects to be tested as soon as possible. In North America, drunk-driving suspects are often ordered out of the car to walk a straight line so the officer can test their motor skills. If they fail the test, they are then immediately taken to the police station and given a blood or breath test to capture the suspect’s blood-alcohol level to be submitted as evidence in court.
