Programme demonstrates massive gap between tests conducted for drink driving and those used to determine drug driving
ITV Wales called on Concateno, Europe’s most experienced provider of drug and alcohol testing solutions, to help raise awareness of the dangers of drug driving in a recent documentary produced for S4C’s current affairs series Y Byd ar Bedwar (The World on Four).
Aired on January 11, the‘gyrru ar gyffuriau’ (drink and drug-driving) programme followed the family of Cliff Jones, who was killed in a road accident along with two of his friends in Anglesey in February 2009. The driver of their vehicle was found to have taken a cocktail of illegal drugs and alcohol.
The programme provided an overview of roadside drug testing practices under current UK law. At the moment, police rely on the Field Impairment Test (FIT) method to determine whether they believe a driver is impaired by drugs. This involves a simple set of motor skills tests such as walking in a straight line or touching your nose.
The programme also included a demonstration of Concateno’s Cozart® DDS® device – an oral fluid (saliva) drug testing kit that provides a simple way to test quickly for the main drugs of abuse, and which police in Australia, Croatia, Italy, Spain and other countries have been using for roadside drug testing for some years.
Since roadside drug testing was introduced in Australia in 2004, incidences of driving while under the influence of drugs almost halved over a four-year period (from one driver in 44 to one driver in 76).
The programme revealed that North Wales Police conducted 10,749 roadside alcohol tests as part of the force’s drink driving campaign in December 2008. By comparison, only four FIT tests were conducted during this period.
Concateno technician Sian Bevan was interviewed for the S4C programme at the drug testing firm’s Cardiff site. She said: “The DDS machine takes about 90 seconds to process the reading and it’s quite simple to do at the side of the road. If it cuts down on the number of people taking drugs and driving then it has to be a good thing.”
Concateno’s part in the programme highlighted the need for a review of the current drug driving laws. Graham Sievers, communications spokesman, commented: “Legislation needs to be changed which makes it an offence if you are caught driving with [illegal] drugs in your system.”
The programme continued with an interview with Minister for Transport Paul Clark MP, who explained why the government has not introduced a roadside drug testing machine, said: “This is a relatively new area and there is no point in rushing into something that isn’t going to deliver what people want to see.”
Clark added: “Those that do mix drink or drugs with driving need to be prosecuted with the robustness of our legal system to make sure the message gets home.”
Cliff’s mother Jennifer Hughes is now campaigning for stricter laws on drug drivers and asked the question why more is not being done by police to identify drivers for drug use at the roadside. She said: “It’s always about drink and driving, but it should be about drink, driving and drugs. With the technology now available to test for drugs at the roadside I don’t know why the authorities are dragging their feet.”
View the full programme at: http://www.s4c.co.uk/clic/e_level2.shtml?series_id=362302825 (and click on the owl symbol for English subtitles)
ENDS
For more information regarding Concateno, please contact:
Matthew Trace or Carrie Lowe
Telephone: +44 (0)1962 893 893
Mobile: +44 (0)7828 663 988 / (0)7554 014 188
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
About Concateno
Concateno (www.concateno.com) is built upon the consolidation of Europe’s strongest and most expert drug testing companies. Combined, the organisation’s services, products and facilities form a global first in the field: a service provider with the capability to deliver test programmes to meet any requirement – from point-of-care instant tests, through to state-of-the-art laboratory analysis for any biological specimen including urine, oral fluids, hair and sweat.
Concateno’s 370 employees perform and deliver more than 10 million tests annually. Additionally an integrated network of 600 sample collection officers, trained in-house in chain-of-custody procedures, supports approximately 8,500 clients around the world.
Committed to the highest levels of accreditation and quality assurance, Concateno works actively within the industry to improve existing best practice. This includes ISO 17025 (independently audited by UKAS), ISO9001:2000, Link-Up, and ISO13485:2003. In addition, the company is subject to a range of external and internal quality assurance programmes.
In August 2009, Concateno became a subsidiary of Inverness Medical Innovations Inc.
About Inverness Medical Innovations
By developing new capabilities in near-patient diagnosis, monitoring and health management, Inverness Medical Innovations enables individuals to take charge of improving their health and quality of life. Inverness’ global leading products and services, as well as its new product development efforts, focus on infectious disease, cardiology, oncology, drugs of abuse and women’s health. Inverness is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. For more information about Inverness Medical Innovations, please visit our website at www.invernessmedical.com .
