Evening star., 1948-11-09
Drunk Driving Trials Are Lost
AS Law Restricts Evidence
New Act to Support
UrinoIysis Tests in
Court to Be Sought
By Crosby Moves


that go to trial because legal tech
nicality prevents prosecutors from
giving juries all the facts, a spokes-
man of the. corporation counsels
Office said today.
Clark King, chief assistant cor
poration counsel for Municipal
Court, who, with his staff, handles
the prosecution of all such charges
in the District, said convictions in
most cases depend on whether or
not the results Of urinalysis tests
can be presented in evidence during
the trial.
In many cases it cannot be pre-
Sented, he said, because it is neces-
sary in the District to back up
such evidence with what is called
qualified medical testimony"
In other words, after the jury is
told the result of urinalysis taken
by police Immediately after the sus-
pected driver is arrested, an expert
must take the witness stand and
explain what the urinalysis means
in terms of the drivers degree of
| Iintoxication.
One Considered Qualified.
Unfortunately, Mr. King said.
there is only one man in the District
who is considered qualified to make
such an Interpretation. He is DR..
Oscar B. Hunter. director of the
| Department of Pathology at Doctors
| Hospital and an outstanding au-
thority on what alcohol does to
human reflexes.
DR.. Hunter is not employed by the
District. He must take time off from
his own laboratory to testify at Mu-
nicipal Court trials, and in many
cases it is impossible for him to ap-
pear as witness, Mr.. King said.
When DR.. Hunter cannot testify
the corporation counsel's Office can
not use the result of urinalysis in
evidence, Mr.. King said, even if it
indicates q state of advanced In
toxication
The lack of such qualified testi-
mony to back up the physical evi-
dence can and has been used as
grounds for ruling of miStrial by
the Court of Appeals, the prosecutor
said.
Mr.. King, who said the number
of drunken driving charges has
more than doubled within the last
year, estimated the District is losing
80 per cent of the trials because of
/ this situation.
Defense Cites Absence.
II don't mind saying that it's get
ting to the point where it's hurting
us badly" he said. 1T isn't just that
We are being kept from presenting
our best possible evidence Most de-
fense lawyers will always make a
point of the fact that we haven't
used the result of a urinalysis and
imply to the jury that this fact is
proof of their clients innocence.
Mr.. King, along with DR.. Hunter
and other District officials interested
in the problem of driving s&fety,
| would like to see q law IN the Dis
trict, like that in force in many
States, which fixes the percentage
of alcohol in the urine above which
a person would be presumed" to
be under the influence of alcohol.
Because there is no such law in
effect, the corporation counsels
Office has to rely on the testimony
of medical expert. The expert
DR.. Hunter-has to be there to tell
the jury that a concentration of
alcohol in the urine exceeding Is
of l per cent impairs a persons
ref1exes to the extent that he should
not drive.
Governs Filing of Charges.
| So we'll defined is this limit that
the corporation counsel's Office
makes it a policy never to bring
charges of drunken driving against
a driver whose urinalysis shows less
than the Is of / per cent con-
centration, according to Mr.. King
DR.. Hunter, who has been giving
people drinks and then testing their
reactions for nearly 40 years, said
the effect of alcohol on drives is no
longer a question of speculation.
Tests, he said, have proved that
people approach state of complete
drunkenness in five classified stages,
determined by the concentration of
alcohol in the blood or urine.
In the first stage, when the con-
centration is less than Il of per
cent, a person acts normally. except
that delicate laboratory devices can
detect a slight impairment of his
CO. ordination.
At Is of per cent, however. a
person is definitely under the in
fiuence," DR.. Hunter said. Although
some people show the effects of al
cohol more than others, the tests
show that all are similarly affected
so far as their ref1exes and CO.
ordination are concerned.
Dangerous Behind Wheel.
At this stage a person loses some
of his emotional stability, DR. Hunter
said, as well as his inhibitions.
These symptoms. taken together,
make him a dangerous man behind
| the wheel of a car, DR.. Hunter de-
clared.
To arrive at this stage, a person
must drink around or ounces
of whisky, DR.. Hunter said, or six
! to seven bottles of beer.
The five categories have medical
names, but DR.. Hunter prefers his
own He calls the first stage dry
and decent" the second delightful
and devilish." With a concentra-
ton of 2 of 1 per cent, a person is
dizzy and delirious";; at 3 of 1
per cent, "dazed and detected" and
above that, dead drunk"
! DR.. Hunter, who is a member Of
the National Safety Council, joins
with Mr.. King in hoping for a law
to make the tests mandatory and
to establish the limit above which
a person legally would be presumed
to be under the influence.
He points out that such a law
would work as much for the benefit
of the innocent as it would help to
put the finger on unsafe drivers. 1t
also would save the District the
expense of a trial in many cases,
where drivers, knowing that the