A fleet of 1500 high-end breath testing devices will soon make their way out to Victorian Police as part of the state government’s measures to cut alcohol-related road injuries and fatalities.
The devices, referred to as Preliminary Breath Testing (PBT) instruments, are part of the state’s 10 year road safety strategy Arrive alive 2008-2017, will aims to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 30 per cent by the end of 2017.
PBT will be rolled out in two phases, with half in late 2010 and the other half in mid-2011. They will be used in police stations, preliminary breath testing sites in conjunction with “Booze Buses” and other police vehicles, as well as by the road-side.
The PBTs are capable of operating for 10 hours straight and in weather conditions ranging from -5°C and +45°C will be able to measure breath alcohol concentrations from 0.000g per 210L of breath to at least 0.400g per 210L of breath.
Management software for the devices will be PC-based and compatible with Victoria Police IT's Standard Operating Environment (SOE) – currently based on Microsoft Windows XP SP2.