Drunken driving and breath alcohol test at the scene of violence in Japan

Abstract

Road Traffic Law prescribes that no person shall drive any vehicle under the influence of intoxicating liquor. Actually, determination of "influence of alcohol" is based on the standard set by the Cabinet Order that alcohol level exceeds 0.5 mg/ml of blood or 0.25 mg/l of expiration. In 1988, number of traffic accidents by drunken driving is 4,808 cases. Among the accidents by drunken driving the rate of fatal causes is 12%. During about last ten years, both of accidents and fatal cases by drunken driving have been decreasing in number, on the other hand, charged or cited number of violation involved "driving under the influence of alcohol" has been increasing. This fact indicates that the concept of seriousness of driving after heavy drinking has been diffused over Japanese nation, but there is still a tendency among drivers to consider the effect of alcohol on driving operation to be negligible when light drinking. In a sobriety checkpoint, alcohol field test are carried out on breath to screen out impaired driver. The most common device used in Japan is an alcohol detector tube, in which cerite particles coated with chromate are packed. The scale on the detector tube is marked to show a value that is lower by 20% than the actual value concerning its inaccuracy. In our study on accuracy of the alcohol detector tube using samples containing approximately 0.25 mg/l of alcohol, which is legal critical level of alcohol impairment, coefficients of variation were 1.50 to 5.45% and deviations from the analytical results by gas chromatography were 18.2 to 19.5%.