Road Traffic Act, 1994

Obligation to accompany member to Garda Síochána station, not under arrest, to provide blood or urine specimen.

14.—(1) Whenever a member of the Garda Síochána is of opinion that a person in charge of a mechanically propelled vehicle in a public place is under the influence of a drug or drugs to such an extent as to be incapable of having proper control of the vehicle, he may require the person to accompany him to a Garda Síochána station.

(2) A person who refuses or fails to comply with a requirement under subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.

(3) A member of the Garda Síochána may arrest without warrant a person who in the member's opinion is committing or has committed an offence under subsection (2).

(4) Where a person is at a Garda Síochána station either pursuant to subsection (1) or having been arrested under subsection (3), a member of the Garda Síochána may there require the person either—

(a) to permit a designated doctor to take from the person a specimen of his blood, or

(b) at the option of the person, to provide for the designated doctor a specimen of his urine,

and if the doctor states in writing that he is unwilling, on medical grounds, to take from the person or be provided by him with the specimen to which the requirement in either of the foregoing paragraphs related, the member may make a requirement of the person under this subsection in relation to the specimen other than that to which the first requirement related.

(5) Subject to section 23 , a person who, following a requirement under subsection (4)

(a) refuses or fails to comply with the requirement, or

(b) refuses or fails to comply with a requirement of a designated doctor in relation to the taking under that subsection of a specimen of blood or the provision under that subsection of a specimen of urine,

shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.

(6) Section 1 (1) of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1907 , shall not apply to an offence under this section.