France: nightclubs will soon have to offer alcohol breath tests

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Par Le Figaro pour le cercle :

The new measure, to be implemented this fall, will join a number of other rules to fight road accidents due to alcohol. Drinking and driving is the leading cause of death on French roads.

Starting this fall, nightclubs and other establishments will have to offer alcohol testing devices, but clients will have no obligation to use them. The measure was announced in 2008 during a Road Safety committee. Three ministries – Transport, Interior and Health – will sign the decree in the coming months.

The new rule targets places open between 2:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m: 2,500 clubs but also “2,500 music-playing bars, 420 cabarets, 75 hotel bars, amounting to nearly 5,500 establishments,” according to Franck Trouet, the general director of the Synhorcat (National Union for hotels, restaurants, cafés and catering services).

Electronic or chemical

Managers will have the choice of offering chemical or electronic alcohol breath tests (also called breathalyzer or terminals).

Choosing chemical breath tests means making at least 50 of these devices available to customers, irrespective of the facilities’ capacity. The stock must correspond to 25 percent of the establishment’s attendance rate.

If the manager chooses electronic breath tests instead, the customer should not have to wait more than 15 minutes to use one, which corresponds to one terminal per 300 people.

Managers will be responsible for funding these measures.

Almost all cafés escape the new requirements. “We fought for this,” said Lauren Lutse, president of the federation of cafés and eateries within the Union of hotel trades and industries (Umih). The only measure concerning them is a charter signed in July 2010, inviting them to promote alcoholic self-assessment among their customers.

“We don't have police authority"

“This is an anti-nightclub measure,” said Patrick Malvaës, president of the National Union for nightclubs and resorts. It will only enrich the manufacturers of terminals, whose results are not always reliable.” Malvaës called these measures “completely ineffective,” and said he believed they would be a source of legal trouble.

“If a customer tests positive but still takes his car, there’s nothing we can do since we don’t have police authority,” he said. “And yet the manager will still be considered responsible because the machine will have revealed the presence of alcohol. Only those serving the last drop are concerned, sparing those who sell the first drink! It’s insane.”

Free tests?

For Malvaës, the only worthwhile measure is the immobilizer breath test in the vehicle. “But the car lobby is blocking it!” According to a government website, the immobilizer breath test stops the vehicle from starting in case of an above-legal alcohol rate.

Breathalyzers could also risk being used for drinking competitions. According to the president of Synhorcat, Didier Chenet, there is a solution to this eventuality. “Managers should be allowed to charge for the use of the chemical breath test or the terminal,” he said.

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