Hand sanitiser leads to failed breath test

Published: 8:44AM Tuesday August 04, 2009 Source: NZPA

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  • Hand sanitiser leads to failed breath test (Source: ONE News)
    Source: ONE News

A Taranaki school principal was left laughing after her efforts to keep the flu away led her to fail an alcohol breath test.

When Margie Sutherland, Uruti School principal, pulled over for a roadside breathtest her car reeked of alcohol, despite the fact she had not had a drop to drink.

Instead she had just rubbed a 65% ethyl alcohol hand sanitiser on herself and her licence, the Taranaki Daily News reports.

"I wound down the window and the smell must've hit him in the face. The stuff smells like a big gin," Sutherland says.

After being told by the officer drink-driving was taken very seriously, she was then accused of having "had a few drinks".

"He got the machine and I just couldn't stop laughing and big red fail came up," she says.

"Imagine being drunk and disorderly on hand sanitiser. He probably thought I was trolleyed by then."

After a second "blow into" test, Sutherland was cleared and explained to the officer it must have been the sanitiser.

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