Eric Thompson: Just suck up the consequences and blow

Caught drink-driving? It's best to keep calm and co-operate. Photo / Herald on Sunday

As I mentioned in last week's missive, I got caught in a police alcohol breath-testing roadblock just after Johnson's Tunnel heading north on State Highway1 on my way home after work at about 8.30pm.

Because I travel that route weekly, I'm quite familiar with the odd testing roadblock anywhere between Orewa and the other side of Warkworth, so no big deal, or so I thought. As most drivers are aware, the officer asks you to speak your name and address into a small hand-held machine.

These will go off if you've had a slice of sherry trifle. Not being overly perturbed about getting a reaction from the passive test, I pulled over into the layby and waited for the officer to fit a tube to the breath-screening machine.

In every other instance, and I've been tested a lot, after a big blow I'm on my way - but not this time. When the sergeant said I had failed, my heart hit the bottom of my shoes, as this was a first for me.

The sergeant asked me to step out of the car and follow him into the bus. He informed me I had to take an evidential test, but before then I had to sit down with the sergeant as he went through a number of questions.

He asked if I had been drinking, to which I replied yes. He said good, as he could smell it on my breath, and went on to say a lot of drivers tell officers they haven't. As I mentioned last week, don't bulls**t the cops - they know what's going on.

I was then asked if I knew the alcohol breath limit, which I didn't. Before you start pulling your hair out, I don't know the exact limit, but I do know not to drink much if I'm going to drive. On the form he marked that my eyes were clear, I was lucid, articulate and not physically impaired.

Next, they asked how much I had had to drink, and I said three glasses of wine with a couple of colleagues after work.

He then asked where and when I had last eaten. I said in the office and I had food at lunchtime. The sergeant said the drink would have been more than pub measures, and not eating for seven hours and then drinking wasn't a good plan. At this point I had no issue with the police as they were unfailingly polite, communicative and doing their job.

It was my problem I was in this predicament and had to suck the consequences up. Mind you, as I walked over to the big machine that would decide my fate, I was packing a few bricks.

Taking a deep breath, I blew into the machine. After a bit of clicking and clacking it spat out a piece of paper saying I was under the limit, but not by a great deal.

The sergeant said he wasn't going to allow me to drive home. I started to open my mouth, but then thought he's only doing his job and has a bigger picture in mind, so kept it shut. Five minutes later he reappeared with a cup of coffee and told me he would recheck me in 20 minutes, and if the level kept dropping, he'd send me on my way. The reason? Because I accepted my lot and didn't argue, or get bolshy.

Twenty minutes later and two further breath tests showed my levels were way down and so off I went home.

During the wait, I had the chance to have a chat with the sergeant and he told me something interesting.

Catching drink-drivers is not the only reason for roadblocks - they catch a lot of drivers with no WOF, no rego, dangerous cars, on drugs and in stolen cars. Next time you see a police officer waving a fairy wand on the side of the road, they're not picking on you; they've got a bigger picture in mind - keeping the roads safe.

As for me, as long as I'm allowed to have a small drink and then drive home I will. However, I'll be having pub measures and eating from now on. Before any hand-wringing, horse-hair shirt wearing Stalin starts whinging on about Driven condoning drink-driving, pull your head in, it's my opinion and mine only. To help readers if they are unsure about the drink-driving limits, the NZTA have the following guidelines:

LEGAL ALCOHOL LIMITS FOR DRIVING

The law says you mustn't drive if the amount of alcohol in your blood or breath exceeds certain limits.

Under 20

The legal alcohol limit, if you are under 20, is 150 micrograms a litre of breath, or 30 milligrams every 100ml of blood. This is effectively a zero limit - consuming just one drink will mean you can be charged with drink-driving.

Twenty or over

You must not drive if you have consumed more than the legal alcohol limit, which is 400 micrograms a litre of breath or 80 milligrams every 100ml of blood. How much you can drink before you reach this limit depends on many factors; whether you are male or female, your size and how much you've eaten.