Alcohol breath tests for drivers which produce results that can be used in court are on the way back after a five-year hiatus. The Dräger breathalyser‚ banned since a court judgment in 2011‚ will be back in use from August 1‚ the National Prosecuting Authority announced on Wednesday.The reintroduction of the device will be piloted in the Western Cape‚ where transport MEC Donald Grant said he was delighted by the move‚ which means blood tests will no longer be needed for drink-driving prosecutions."We are confident that the reintroduction of evidentiary breath alcohol testing will add yet another weapon in our arsenal to combat the illicit effects of drink driving and errant road user behaviour‚" he said.The reintroduction the Dräger was the culmination of years of work following the State v Hendricks judgement in 2011 which saw it being withdrawn."The judge found that there were problems in some of the ways in which the Dräger device was used‚ leading to the acquittal of the accused who had been charged with driving with a breath alcohol level higher than the legal limit of 0.24mg per 1‚000ml‚" said Grant.But the judge also found that breathalysers were a reliable means of testing for alcohol in a suspect‚ and that they should be used as a tool to “eradicate the scourge of drunk driving for the betterment of society”.Grant said his department created a task team to work through the problems identified by the court.The task team also included experts from the National Prosecuting Authority‚ the national Department of Transport‚ the South African Bureau of Standards‚ the Western Cape Provincial Traffic Services and the Gene Louw Traffic College."I have long maintained that a crucial element to reversing errant road user behaviour is to impose harsh and appropriate consequences‚" said Grant."I am confident that the reintroduction of evidentiary breath alcohol testing will see offenders recieve swift justice‚ thereby deterring others from engaging in such life-threatening behaviour‚ and refraining from getting behind the wheel of a car after having consumed alcohol."How it works:- Evidentiary breath alcohol testing uses a machine which can read how much alcohol is in a person’s breath. - It is called “evidentiary” as the reading can be produced as evidence to prosecute people accused of drinking and driving. - This machine‚ the people who operate it‚ and the location it operates in must all pass a very specific and demanding set of tests in order to be used to prosecute suspects.TMG Digital/Cape Town Bureau ..