Sobercheck Reports Lower Drink/Drive Limit Spurs Hot Demand For Breathalysers

Since the drink-drive limit was lowered on December 1, breathalysers have been in hot demand and suppliers like Sober Check can barely keep up with orders, coming in a variety of shapes, sizes and prices. However, they are not all equal. Recently the Weekend Herald decided to test a few models of varying prices to determine how easy they were to use, and see if there were differences in the performance levels of the cheaper models compared with the top-of-the-line machines.

Breathalyser supplier Ian Goodwin, from a South Island supplier, said there would have been "10 times at least" more sales in the past few weeks than at the same time last year. "We've been selling them for about seven years and this has been the biggest boom we've had. We can hardly keep up with supply. It probably started about three weeks before December 1 [when the drink-drive limit was dropped from 400mg of breath-alcohol to 250mg] and it hasn't stopped. A lot of workplaces are using [them] for after-work drinks and a lot of Christmas presents."

The Weekend Herald tested a man and a woman drinking 330ml bottles of 5 per cent alcohol beer, over a period of four hours. Following each beer, as per the requirements of the breathalysers to get accurate readings, there was a 20-minute stand-down period with no eating or drinking before being tested. Three of the devices tested were electronic digital breath-alcohol readers, while the other was a $9 disposable unit with colour-change crystals.

A police spokesman said personal breathalysers were a guide only. "Our message is that there is no 'safe' amount of alcohol to drink before driving. Alcohol affects everyone differently, so while personal breathalysers may provide a guide, they should not be relied upon. Police will certainly not accept any such method as an excuse if someone is caught exceeding breath or blood alcohol levels."
Gavin Foster, at Sober Check, said individuals, as well as businesses and some pubs & clubs, were buying up the testers. While the top-shelf machine he sold - the Lifeloc FC10 - was "law enforcement" grade and good for businesses, less expensive ones were available for personal use. The quality was dictated by how well the machines tested after 12 months' use, because some models would become less accurate over time and others that were not tested, which sell for $5 to $20, should be avoided as they were essentially "random number generators", he said.

For further information on Sober Check please go to http://www.sobercheck.co.nz .