Road Traffic Act, 1994
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Obligation to provide blood or urine specimen while in hospital. |
15.—(1) Where, in a public place, an event occurs in relation to a mechanically propelled vehicle in consequence of which a person is injured, or claims or appears to have been injured, and is admitted to, or attends at, a hospital and a member of the Garda Síochána is of opinion that, at the time of the event,— | |
(a) the person was driving or attempting to drive, or in charge of with intent to drive or attempt to drive (but not driving or attempting to drive), the mechanically propelled vehicle, and | ||
(b) the person had consumed an intoxicant, | ||
then such member may, in the hospital, require the person either— | ||
(i) to permit a designated doctor to take from the person a specimen of his blood, or | ||
(ii) 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 sub-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. | ||
(2) Subject to section 23 , a person who, following a requirement under subsection (1)— | ||
(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. | ||
(3) Notwithstanding subsection (2), it shall not be an offence for a person to refuse or fail to comply with a requirement under subsection (1) where, following his admission to, or attendance at, a hospital, the person comes under the care of a doctor and the doctor refuses, on medical grounds, to permit the taking or provision of the specimen concerned. | ||
(4) Section 1 (1) of the Probation of Offenders Act, 1907 , shall not apply to an offence under this section. |