The ACT was moving towards harsher penalties on driving under the influence of alcohol, a story featured in The Canberra Times on this day in 1970 details.
The maximum penalty for driving under the influence of alcohol had been doubled in the proposed Motor Traffic Ordinance under which breathalyser tests were to be introduced in the ACT.
Under the ordinance, anybody who refused to submit to a breath test would be liable to a fine of $500 or imprisonment for 12 months.
Prior to this, the penalty for driving while under the influence of alcohol was a fine of $10 to $200 or imprisonment for a period ranging from 14 days to six months.
The ordinance also included the introduction of the amphometer, a device for checking the speed of cars on roads.
The draft legislation was to go before the ACT Advisory Council at its meeting the following Monday. An unusual police demonstration of the tests, saw council members trial the tests after an hour of knocking back middies, the story said.
Media were not invited to attend. Mr Alan Fitzgerald, of the ACT Advisory Council, was told at Canberra Police Headquarters that he had a blood alcohol reading of .06.
His colleagues on the council, Mr Jim. Leedman, Mr Gordon Walsh and Mr Fred McCauley, showed readings of between .025 and .05. Mr Fitzgerald, who moved the original motion in the council calling for the introduction of the breathalyser, had the distinction of downing more beer than anyone else.
"We weren't drinking because we wanted to. It was an experience I forced on us advisory councillors ... in the interest of the public," Mr Fitzgerald said in a written statement.
Mr Walsh, who had four middies and a reading of .035, said it was "a valuable exercise".
See trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/11950464
