Driving under the influence of alcohol

Being under the influence of alcohol while driving can have far-reaching consequences. Not only are you endangering your own life, but also the lives of everyone you encounter on the road.

Source: HER LAW – Making the law work for you by M. Nagtegaal
Alcohol and the law
The Road Traffic Act of 1996 regulates certain offences that involve consumption of alcohol. The Act states that it’s an offence to drive a vehicle on a public road, or to occupy the driver’s seat of a motor vehicle with the engine running, while:
  • under the influence of an intoxicating liquor or a drug that has a narcotic effect; or
  • the concentration of alcohol in your blood is not less than 0.05 of a gram per 100 millilitres of blood. For a professional driver the concentration of alcohol in the blood must be less than 0.02 of a gram per 100 millilitres, or
  • the concentration of alcohol in your breath is not less than 0.24 of a milligram per 1 000 millilitres, or in the case of a professional driver, not less than 0.10 of a milligram per    1000 millilitres.
Any person behind the wheel whose blood alcohol level is above the permitted level is regarded by the law as being incapable of driving a vehicle, and can be prosecuted. But, as you’ve seen, you can also be prosecuted for just sitting in the driver’s seat while the engine’s running. (Now don’t try to be clever and have someone push your car and you home; the law considers a vehicle to be ‘driven’ even if it’s moving without the engine running, for instance if it’s being pushed.)
How alcohol impairs your functioning
Alcohol is classified as a drug, and it acts in the same way as an anaesthetic, lowering and depressing the activity of the brain and spinal cord.
Alcohol requires no digestion. Because it’s water-soluble, it’s absorbed directly into your blood stream. More blood is supplied to the brain than to any other organ, with the result that alcohol impairs your brain functions within minutes. It’s that easy.
At a breath-alcohol level of 0.24, your reaction time doubles, muscle coordination diminishes, and you’ll be more likely to respond incorrectly to stimuli.
Alcohol also affects the forebrain by suppressing caution, carefulness, concentration, self-criticism, and self-control. It’s a mood changer, leading to a feeling of well-being and to recklessness, aggression, and carelessness, all of which are highly likely to affect your judgement negatively while driving. This is the reason why you may think you’re Sarah Jessica Parker meets Madonna while trying to pole dance on a streetlamp at 4 a.m. after too many cosmos.
Furthermore, alcohol affects your vision. Depth perception deteriorates, making it impossible to judge accurately how far away objects are. Eye muscles lose their precision. When both eyes can’t focus on the same object, vision becomes blurred or you see double. Alcohol also results in tunnel vision. At night pupils don’t adapt from darkness to light, and a drunk driver will be dazzled by oncoming headlights far more severely than someone who is sober. It also makes night blindness worse. Get the picture? You’re finished and klaar. You can’t see, and shouldn’t be allowed near a cell phone, road or dance floor.
It’s quite simple, ten vodkas ensures a crash. If your blood alcohol concentration is 0.08, you’re four times more likely to crash than if you’re sober. With a count of 0.12, your chances are 15 times more likely and at 0.16 your chances of crashing are 30 times more than if you’re sober. It’s bleak, very bleak.
How much can you drink?
It can’t be stated accurately how many drinks have to be consumed to reach the maximum level that’s permitted by law. It depends on many factors, for instance, the form in which alcohol is taken, the rate of absorption through the bloodstream, the drinker’s physique, the time spent drinking, and whether the drink was taken with a meal or on an empty stomach.
About 80% of alcohol consumed is converted into water and carbon dioxide, and the rest is excreted through your lungs and kidneys. Your liver breaks down the alcohol at a steady rate. This rate doesn’t increase according to the alcohol intake. Thus, if you consume alcohol at a rapid rate, it will exceed the liver’s breakdown rate and will lead to a build-up of the levels of alcohol in your blood. The higher the sugar and soluble nutrient content of the alcoholic beverage, the slower absorption takes place. Therefore beverages like wine, ciders, and beer will be absorbed far more slowly than spirits, which are absorbed rapidly because the process is not delayed by a sugar or nutrient content. The rate of absorption is further increased when you mix your drink with an aerated mixer like soda water or Sprite.
Your weight also plays a huge part. If you’re a small person, your blood alcohol level is likely to be higher in relation to how many drinks you have had, because you have less body fluid to dilute the alcohol than someone of larger size.
When drinks are taken slowly, it results in lower blood alcohol levels. This is also the case when they are taken with a meal, because this slows the rate of absorption. It will, however, not help if you eat something after drinking. And if you drink on an empty stomach, the entire dose of alcohol is absorbed and distributed to your body tissues. So it’s best always to eat something before you drink.
For information on how to roughly calculate the amount you can drink before being over the legal limit, go to this website: http://www.sadd.org.za/unitsofalcohol.html.
G & T SPELLS GREAT TROUBLE
If you’re convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol, it can have far-reaching consequences. You may be fined or imprisoned or both. The court may also order that your driver’s licence be endorsed with details of the conviction and the sentence. Your licence may be suspended or cancelled, and if you’re still unlicensed, you may be disqualified entirely from obtaining a driver’s licence.
Tests you really want to pass
THE BLOOD TEST
If you are stopped by a police officer on suspicion of being over the limit, a medical practitioner, registered nurse, or prison medical officer may take your blood sample. This sample will then be submitted to a laboratory for analysis to ascertain the presence and estimated quantity of alcohol in your blood at the time the sample was taken. Before the court can consider the results of a blood analysis, the state must prove that it was done by an expert who had the necessary skill, and that it was, indeed, your blood that was analysed. You’re not allowed to refuse permission for a blood sample to be taken.
THE BREATHALYSER TEST
A breathalyzer is an instrument that measures the amount of alcohol exhaled as vapour. The reading obtained can be easily converted to give an approximate indication of the level of alcohol in the bloodstream. The results obtained with a breathalyzer are now acceptable as evidence in court. (This was not the position under the old Road Traffic Act of 1989.)
Proving guilt
If it can be proved that the concentration of alcohol in your blood was not less than 0.05 of a gram per 100 millilitres of blood at any stage within two hours after the alleged offence, it will be presumed, until proved otherwise, that the concentration was also not less than 0.05 of a gram per 100 millilitres at the time of the alleged offence. If a professional driver had a concentration of not less than 0.02 of a gram per 100 millilitres at any time within two hours of the alleged offence, it will also be presumed, until proven otherwise, that it was not less than this at the time of the alleged contravention.
This presumption works in the same way when the alcohol concentration in your breath is tested. If, within two hours after the alleged offence, the concentration in your breath is not less than 0.24 of a milligram per 1 000 millilitres, it will be presumed, until proven otherwise, that the concentration was also not less than this at the time of the alleged offence. For a professional driver, the concentration of alcohol must be less than 0.10 of a milligram per 1 000 millilitres within two hours of the offence, otherwise the same presumption will exist.
This means that a blood or breath sample will almost always be taken within two hours after you allegedly commit the offence, so that this presumption will exist, and so that it will be up to you to prove the contrary.
Drinking and smoking after the accident
While you’re being detained for an alleged offence, you’re not allowed to consume any substance that contains alcohol of any nature, except when a medical practitioner administers it. It’s an offence to do so. You are also not allowed to smoke until the sample of your blood or breath has been taken. The concentration of alcohol in the breath must be ascertained by using the prescribed equipment.
Your rights
Although you are not allowed to refuse to have a sample of blood or breath taken, you do have the following rights while under arrest.
  • You have the right to be treated with respect and dignity.
  • You have the right to know who the medical examiner is.
  • You have the right to know what to expect during the examination. The process must be discussed with you.
  • You have the right to have access to your personal medical practitioner, if he or she is available. You will, however, be responsible for the costs incurred. If your medical practitioner arrives simultaneously with the government appointee, the latter will first have the opportunity to complete his or her examination.
  • You also have the right to be examined in a facility designed and equipped for this purpose. You have the right not to be examined in a police cell, charge office, or other ill-equipped location.
  • Your physical well-being enjoys priority. No blood- or breath-sampling procedure may cause urgent medical treatment for a life-threatening condition to be postponed.
  • Severely intoxicated people have to be referred to a hospital for observation. Less intoxicated people, if detained, should be observed every 15 minutes by an experienced police officer until sober.
  • You have the right to access to your normal routine medication.
  • You have the right to be referred for rehabilitation, should yours be an obvious case of alcoholism.
  • Your right to personal privacy is important. If the condition you are in and your behaviour permits it, the physical examination should be done in privacy. If the person who examines you is male and you are female, it’s advisable to have an independent female available during the examination. If, however, you don’t behave yourself, a police officer will be present during the examination.
BLOOD SAMPLES AND CONSENT
Section 37 of the Criminal Law and Procedure Act allows the sampling of your blood without your consent. A police officer may order a doctor or a nurse to collect the necessary samples, whether it’s blood or otherwise. The law also allows the use of restraints or force that may be necessary to get the sample. The written order is kno9wn as the SAP308 (a); it’s a form that must be completed by a police officer and then handed to the doctor or nurse, whom it instructs to determine soberness.
If a doctor or nurse doesn’t receive this instruction before the examination, and you didn’t consent to the sample being taken, touching you or introducing a needle into your body will constitute common assault, at least.
The Criminal Law and Procedure Act makes further provision for doctors and nurses at hospitals to collect a blood sample if they believe that the result may affect the outcome of a later legal procedure. Doctors and nurses are legally obliged to collect this sample, and need no official consent to do it. The sample has to be handed to a police officer and it’s advisable to get the receiver to sign a receipt.
THE USE OF RESTRAINTS OR FORCE
From a Constitutional angle, the use of force to subdue someone in order to take a blood sample may be an infringement of a person’s rights. But if the doctor refuses to obey the police order (SAP308) it may boil down to obstructing the ends of justice. All citizens are obliged to take part in maintaining law and order, and in preventing other innocent citizens from becoming victims of the intoxicated.
There are several observations that can be made without touching the body of a person who’s allegedly drunk. One can look at the following:
  • clothing: check for soiling, neatness, an open fly, vomit, etc.
  • facial redness
  • a smell of alcohol
  • speech which may be slurred or stuttering
  • a gait which may be wide-based and stumbling
  • bloodshot eyes
  • general behaviour: swearing, uncontrolled euphoria, argumentativeness, and impulsiveness may indicate intoxication.
Evidence of behaviour like that listed above will be accepted by a court if the observations were made by an experienced police officer or medical practitioner. If this behaviour can be proved, it will be regarded as sufficient evidence to prove intoxication.
The consequences
If you’re caught driving under the influence of alcohol, you don’t have the option of paying a fine. You’ll be arrested on the spot. You will then be taken to a police station where you’ll get booked and locked up in a cell until you’re sober.
After you’ve sobered up (which can take hours), you’ll be charged for driving under the influence of alcohol. If a blood test is being used as evidence, you may apply for bail in a magistrate’s office or court. If you can’t afford bail you’ll be locked up until the case is heard.