Patna traffic police are mulling field sobriety test to nab drunken drivers.

The option is being weighed in the wake of the police's failure to use breathalysers, which were purchased three years back, to check the menace.

Under the field sobriety test, a person suspected to be drunk, is asked to walk on a straight line and then return using the same path. Generally, those in a drunken state find it difficult to walk on the straight line.

Patna superintendent of police (traffic) Prantosh Kumar Das told The Telegraph that they were considering the field sobriety test to check the trend of people driving under the influence of liquor.

'Patna traffic police have 17 breathalysers but only two are usable with printers attached to them to give the reading of liquor intake level. This is recorded evidence. The two machines, too, are not being used regularly. However, we are planning to start a massive campaign against drink driving soon. In the absence of sufficient number of breathalysers, we are considering field tests on suspicious people,' the officer said.

The breathalysers were bought by the Patna police in mid-2011 and they started using it for a while after which the machines were dumped.

'Some of the machines started malfunctioning while many didn't have printers. It was a blunder buying them without the printers. It has been three years now but nothing specific has been done to put the machines in use. The matter has been taken up with the senior authorities several times but no action has been initiated,' an officer said.

Field sobriety tests to ascertain liquor intake is used by police forces around the world.

Some of them include noticing the slurred speech and talks of the suspect, the eyes, which are generally red and watery after heavy liquor intake, smell of liquor. If the police suspect a case of drink driving, they ask the suspect to recite alphabets or numbers, ask him/her to stand straight and then walk straight on a line for some time and then walk back.

'The walk on the straight line is something which is easy and can be conducted by any constable or officer in the field,' Das said, stressing that winters witness increased cases of drink driving and so the campaign needs to be launched soon.

He said those failing in field sobriety test would be sent for a blood test as one needed to have proof to establish the culpability of the offender in the court.

The traffic SP, however, refused to give a date of the launch but hinted that the campaign could be started around Christmas and would continue till the New Year.