Announcement soon on breathalyser

Almost a year after authorities put the brakes on the rollout of the highly-anticipated breathalyser testing, an announcement regarding its implementation could be imminent.

This indication has come from Santia Bradshaw, Minister of Transport, Works and Water Resources, who said that the Transport Authority was still in the process of going through several proposals for application that would accompany a metered taxi rate system, the absence of which authorities blamed for the delay of the Lifeloc FC20 breathalyser tests.

Providing a brief update on the road safety measure during a media conference at the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) headquarters on Monday, Bradshaw said she was hoping to get an update from the Transport Authority soon, as all other systems were already in place.

“One of the challenges was that we wanted to have the app in place . . . I am awaiting information from the Transport Authority on the status of that. They had a number of proposals which they were reviewing. So we are just awaiting confirmation from them as to when that will be ready. I hope that we can speak to that maybe within the next week or so,” she said.

“But everything is in place for the rollout of it – the persons have been trained, we have actually done a number of the PSAs [public service announcements] as well to ready ourselves for the rollout.

“But it was also felt at the time that we need to accompany that with an app so that if persons decided to leave their vehicles at home that they had an alternate method of transport to get to and from their destination, or if they were at a bar and they needed to call a taxi basically that there was clarity in terms of the rates as well. So we are working on that and hopefully we should be in a position to present that to the public shortly,” she assured.

Over the years, officials of the Barbados Road Safety Association (BRSA) have led the call for the breathalyser to be implemented

While the amendments to the Road Traffic Act make provision for breathalyser testing and the implementation date was set for January 1, 2020, it was stalled pending training for police officers and a public education programme.

After Police Public Relations Officer Acting Inspector Rodney Inniss announced in March 2022 that the breathalyser testing would be rolled out from April 1, 2022, following extensive training, Attorney General Dale Marshall later revealed that Cabinet had agreed not to proceed with the measure before the introduction of metered taxis. (MM)