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Abstract
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In Canada there is the supposed slogan of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that they are out to "get their man." Be it as it may be, one method by which it cannot be accomplished is the recommendation by the Committee on Tests for Intoxication of the National Safety Council of the United States that "if there was. . . fifteen-hundredths percent or more by weight of alcohol in the defendant's blood, it shall be presumed that the defendant was under the influence of intoxicating liquor."
The first attempt in Canada to make use of the alcohol content of the blood, independent of all other evidence, failed. In ren- dering the judgment in this case (Weir v. Dickson) the Hon. Mr. Justice McDougall, put it thus:
"The Court does not propose to follow the expert witnesses into the intricacies of the relative merits of blood for testing purposes.... To do so would be long and could serve no useful purpose. It will be sufficient to say that while the alcohol content of the blood may usefully be referred to as constituting some proof of intoxication in itself is not conclusive of the fact."
This case eventually reached the Supreme Court of Canada, where the judgment of the trial court was upheld.
The need of laboratory tests for the detection of drunkenness hardly requires comment. The incidence of traffic accidents is on the increase; the extent to which alcoholic intoxication is a contributing factor is on the increase (1.2.3.4.5.6.7.) and a driver of a motor vehicle or a pedestrian who is under the influence of alcohol is a menace to others as well as to himself which no improvement of motor car equipment and which no skill of sober users of the road are capable of combatting.
https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol39/iss2/13
Keywords: Ethanol impaired driving
Language: en |