cycling accidents and the police
As some of you are aware, I had an accident a few weeks ago coming down monatacute road in the wet. While in hospital I had blood taken for no other purpose than drug and alcohol testing. I don't mind what sort of lifestyles people have out there, but be careful, even riding a bike you can be tested.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by trappy on -
They have been doing that for years - When i was 18 I had a bike accident and they took my blood to see if i was on something.
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Permalink Reply by Alasdair McLellan on -
I don't think testing you assumes you're guilty. That's what we call a 'strawman' or 'logical fallacy'.
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Permalink Reply by VeloAvenger on
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No complaints here. Seems to make way more sense to test people in accidents rather than randomly stopping people for tests.
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Permalink Reply by emu legs on -
Yep !
I reckon I have been tested more times than Lance !
Not saying I am a good rider ,I am saying i am a great crasher and have had many trips to casualty resulting in the usual blood samples being taken !
I never had any of the samples brought to my attention for any PEDs or others ! LOL
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Permalink Reply by Michael Murray on -
Was it definitely going to the police or just data collection ?
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Permalink Reply by Rob W on -
police definitely, I got a receipt to say I had given it, and a very official letter saying I was clean. Lucky they didn't find the 200% crazyness.
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Permalink Reply by hozozco on -
My brother was in a car accident decades ago. They took blood from the driver and all the passengers - just in case the driver turned out not to be the driver!
Simon
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Permalink Reply by Kim Seagrim on -
I had blood taken following a bike crash. Didn't know about it until I received an "all clear" report from SAPOL.
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Permalink Reply by heather on -
I was blood tested after a bicycle-bus incident that occurred mid-morning.
Searched the web but did not find the actual law. The following might be of interest. Also found info that person in control of boat must not be over 0.05 BAC. That drivers of public buses and trains [and trams?] must have zero BAC.
http://www.dpti.sa.gov.au/roadsafety/Safer_behaviours/alcohol_drink...
Drink Driving is one of the main causes of road deaths in South Australia . . . Drinking alcohol affects driving skills and increases the likelihood that the driver will engage in risk-taking behaviour . . . While most of the attention is focused on people who drink and drive, cyclists and pedestrians affected by alcohol also risk being killed or injured on our roads. Alcohol has been identified as a significant risk factor in collisions involving a pedestrian with 36% of pedestrian fatalities found to have a blood alcohol concentration above the legal driving limit of 0.05.http://www.dassa.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=124
It is against the law for learner/probationary drivers to drive with any alcohol in their body as it is a breach of their learner/probationary conditions. Drink driving provisions also apply to someone acting as a qualified passenger for a learner driver. A qualified passenger is a person who occupies a seat next to a learner driver and is the holder of a driver's licence for that type of vehicle. They can be required to undergo a breath analysis or provide a blood sample in the same way as if they were actually driving the vehicle.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6571110
Drunk driving countermeasures have included the 0.05 g% legal limit and mandatory disqualification, random breath testing, compulsory blood alcohol tests on all road crash casualties and a zero blood alcohol limit for learner and probationary drivers and motor cyclists.http://www.ozemedicine.com/blog/?p=829
Essentially we are now “encouraged” (or “required” to if there is a fatality involved) to blood test ALL patients from a motor vehicle accident who present to ED (or brought to the ED by police who suspect they were driving whilst drug affected), if they are aged 15 years or over irrespective of whether they were driving or not, and irrespective of whether a alcohol breathe test is negative or not.
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Permalink Reply by Edward @bikeadelaide on -
It is section 47I of the Road Traffic Act. If a motor vehicle is involved in an accident and a person above 10 years old is brought to hospital having suffered an injury in the accident, doctors are obliged to take their blood.
If the person refuses to allow the doctor to take their blood without a proper excuse, they face a mandatory 12 month disqualification.
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Permalink Reply by Simon Lownsborough on -
'motor vehicle', and 'disqualification', seem at odds with cycling accidents!
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