Road Traffic Act, 1968
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Obligation to provide, or permit taking of, specimen at Garda station (section 50). |
33.—(1) Where a person (in this section referred to as the arrested person) arrested under section 50 (6) of the Principal Act or section 28 (3) (b) of this Act has been brought to a Garda station, the member of the Garda Síochána then in charge there may do either or both of the following— | |
(a) require the arrested person to provide in the prescribed manner a specimen of his breath by exhaling into an apparatus designed for showing the concentration of alcohol in the breath or blood or into a receptacle designed for preserving the specimen for subsequent analysis, | ||
(b) require the arrested person either to permit a designated registered medical practitioner to take from the arrested person a specimen of his blood or, if the arrested person so opts, to provide for the designated registered medical practitioner a specimen of the arrested person's urine in accordance with the prescribed procedure. | ||
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), when an arrested person who opted to provide in accordance with the prescribed procedure a specimen of urine fails to do so, he may be required by the member of the Garda Síochána in charge of the station to permit the designated registered medical practitioner to take from the arrested person a specimen of his blood. | ||
(3) An arrested person (other than a person who has provided a specimen of his urine in accordance with the prescribed procedure) who, following a requisition under this section, refuses or fails to permit a designated registered medical practitioner to take from the arrested person a specimen of his blood shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for any term not exceeding one month or to both such fine and such imprisonment and, in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for any term not exceeding three months or to both such fine and such imprisonment. | ||
(4) An arrested person who refuses or fails to comply with a requisition under subsection (1) (a) shall be guilty of an offence. | ||
(5) A person convicted of an offence under this section who has been previously convicted of an offence under section 30 of the Road Traffic Act, 1933 , section 49 or 50 of the Principal Act or section 30 (3) of this Act shall, for the purposes of determining his liability to punishment under this section, be treated as having been previously convicted of an offence under this section. |