OUR HISTORY
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.05 SAVES LIVES
Victoria Police led the way to safer roads with the introduction of random breath testing 40 years ago. In 1976, Victoria was the first Australian state to start randomly breath testing drivers using a ‘puff bag’, which took about five minutes to get a result.
“The percentage of drivers killed with a BAC of .05 and above more than halved from almost 50 per cent in 1976 to just over 24 per cent in 2009,” he said.
It required a driver to blow through a glass tube containing crystals that reacted with alcohol and inflated a plastic bag.
“By 2014 the number of drivers killed with illegal amounts of alcohol in their system had fallen to 22, just under 16 per cent of all drivers killed.”
The introduction of random breath testing was the first step towards reducing the lives lost on Victoria’s roads and innovation in road safety continued with the first booze buses and electric testing devices introduced in 1983.
Insp Boorman said Victoria was still leading the way in reducing road trauma.
From then on, Victoria Police continued to increase the number of random breath tests performed and, in 1987, legislation was introduced giving police the ability to immediately suspend drivers with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .15 and above. Road Policing’s Inspector Martin Boorman said with the increase in enforcement came a decrease in Victoria’s road toll.
“Penalties for drink driving continue to increase and harsher sentences for repeat offenders have also been introduced,” he said. “But there are emerging issues like drug driving that is among the biggest killer on Victorian roads. “Victoria Police introduced random roadside drug testing in December 2004 and is now removing 18 drug drivers each day from the roads.”
02 Images Safer roads 01 Insp Boorman with a current breath testing device and one used in the 80s. 02 Four decades of breath testing equipment, including the puff bag.
Editorial: Maria Carnovale Photography: David Johns POLICE LIFE | SPRING 2016
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