GNBS says calibration of speed guns and breathalyser kits only necessary after expiration of calibration certificate

The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) on Sunday said that it is not implying that the breathalyser kits and speed guns used by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) are “inaccurate or out of calibration.

In a statement issued by the Bureau’s Head of Marketing and Communications, Syeid Ibbrahim, the entity said that Public Relations Officer, Llloyd David, following reports by some media entities that the GNBS is unable to calibrate the equipment used by the Force, clarified that “for the first year or two years these devices do not need calibration since it comes with a calibration certificate which is valid for the time frame”.

The issue of non-calibration of the equipment came to the fore following the Magistrates’ Court ruling in the Gary Best dangerous driving case.

Best, who was freed last week of the charge of causing the death of cyclist Jude Bentley by dangerous driving.

Magistrate Rondell Weaver upheld the no-case submission made by Best’s lawyer, Nigel Hughes. Hughes along with co-attorneys Ronald Daniels and Sophia Findlay on Friday explained that the Court found that the breathalyzer device used to test Best had not been calibrated in over a year.

Further, the Police officer who testified disclosed — in his own words — that the results of the test are considered unreliable if the machine is not calibrated every six months.

According to Paragraph 97 of the judgment, as seen by the Village Voice News, Police Constable #23734 Travis Peniston told the Court that “the results are considered unreliable.”

The Court therefore stated that it is “duty-bound” to place no weight on the breathalyzer test and rejected the evidence altogether.