Test your knowledge: When was the roadside breathalyser introduced to Britain?

THE YEAR is 1872. Carriages and horses career about the place, with riders and horsemen often under the influence, and the people, and authorities, have had enough; the 1872 licensing act is introduced. Anyone caught faced being sentenced to a month in prison, with hard labour for good measure.

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In September 1897, George Smith, a 25-year old London taxi driver, becomes the first person to be arrested for drink driving, and after pleading guilty he was fined 25 shillings.

But scientific roadtest testing, and the tools to do it, took a lot longer to arrive. Do you know when the breathalyser was introduced to Britain? Scroll down to see if you know the answer…

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By 1925, as the motor car had began to edge the horse-drawn carriage off the road, the criminal justice act made it an offence to be drunk in charge of any mechanically propelled vehicle on any highway or public place. However, this was still a matter of judgment; in 1962, the Road Traffic Act – known as The Marples Act, after Ernest Marples, the then Minister of Transport – meant that blood, urine or breath tests could be carried out on drivers for alcohol analysis.

But the Road Safety Act of 1967, brought in by Barbara Castle (top image), Minister for Transport, introduced evidential breath testing – better known as the roadside breathalyser. It meant type approval for portable devices was set out by the Government and a year later, the first breathalyser got type approval.

Its introduction is reported to have led to a fall in road traffic accidents (where alcohol had been a contributing factor) from 25% to 15%.

Also read: Products: AlcoSense Pro breathalyser