A controversy in B.C. about the reliability of breathalyzers used by police in roadside tests should raise red flags in this province, too.
A Vancouver lawyer's examination of the situation through access to information requests raises questions about the accuracy of such tests. Paul Doroshenko's investigation showed that in one case, a sober Abbotsford, B.C., police officer failed a breathalyzer screening while testing the machine.
Doroshenko's study of documents revealed a host of problems with the machines in several B.C. communities including Vancouver, Abbotsford, Whistler, Kitimat, Kamloops and Port Moody, with none of the troubles reported to the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles, according to a Canadian Press story in Tuesday's Lethbridge Herald.
Doroshenko contends there's enough evidence to indicate that roadside breathalyzers are notoriously unreliable, particularly in cold weather.
"This sort of undermines the confidence in the justice system from two different respects because if you're using a wonky system to collect evidence and you can come to me and I can show you the problems with it, who's going to trust the system," he said in the story.
The issue came to the forefront in 2010 when 2,000 breathalyzers were removed from service for recalibration, and Doroshenko says the situation hasn't improved.
Such questions about breathalyzer accuracy are bound to prompt concerns in Alberta, especially with new legislation making its way through the legislature that will allow police to issue licence suspensions to drivers who are found to have a blood alcohol content between .05 and .08. Since .08 remains the legal limit, drivers found to be in the .05-.08 range won't be subject to Criminal Code prosecutions, but could lose their licence for a specified period. And of course, that automatic suspension is a point of contention with critics of the new law since it effectively imposes a penalty before the accused has had an opportunity for their say in court.
In a story in the Lethbridge Herald earlier this month, a Lethbridge police spokesman said the new law is intended to target repeat drunk drivers. But it could certainly have an impact on other motorists, too, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. If it gets more tipsy drivers off the roads, it stands to reason the roads will be safer for all of us.
However, if there's a danger of law-abiding drivers facing licence suspensions because of faulty breathalyzer readings, that's another matter entirely. In B.C., Attorney General Shirley Bond has said that, in view of a B.C. Supreme Court ruling which struck down part of that province's new drunk-driving law, police officers will return to requiring motorists who fail a roadside test to go to the police station for a more accurate breathalyzer test.
Will that be the case in Alberta? And if so, that's still a stressful and embarrassing inconvenience for a driver who potentially hasn't done anything wrong.
The crackdown on impaired drivers is a good move but it has to be a fair procedure based on reliable information. The controversy in B.C. should highlight the importance of making certain that breathalyzers are properly calibrated on a regular basis to ensure the readings they are producing are accurate.
These tough, new laws are supposed to target drunk drivers, not law-abiding citizens. Otherwise, there's the danger of causing undue harm along with any potential good.
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