Archie Cameron charged with drink driving after a wild night at the Plucked Duck B&S Ball

A Roma teenagers, who had 15-20 beers and rum and colas the previous night, believed he was at 0.00 when he got behind the wheel the next morning. But a police reading said differently.

A 19-year-old Roma man has learnt the hard way that self-administered RBTs don’t work after he blew positive for alcohol the morning after a big drinking session.

P-plater Archie Cameron consumed between 15-20 beers and rum and colas at the Plucked Duck B&S Ball at the Goondiwindi Showgrounds last month, Roma Magistrates Court heard.

However, despite having his last alcoholic drink at midnight and a self-administered RBT coming back at 0.00, Cameron thought he was in the all clear and jumped straight behind the wheel the following morning.

At about 11.30am on September 17, Goondiwindi Police intercepted his Isuzu D-Max Ute on the Cunningham Highway for a random breath test.

Cameron was taken to the police station for further questioning after his BAC reading came back at 0.036.

The second-year apprentice builder pleaded guilty to drink driving while holding a provisional licence

The duty lawyer said her client did everything in his power to ensure he was under the limit and that he’s not making excuses for this behaviour.

“He tested himself and it said he was clear,” she said.

Magistrate Shane Elliott said that blood alcohol concentration “isn’t an exact science”.

“Those tests aren’t accurate, if you’re going to drink, don’t drive,” he said.

“On any given day your blood alcohol concentration can be different each time regardless of how much you drink. It can be different day to day, week to week.

“I can see you’ve tried to put things in place to ensure you were under the limit, but as you now know those tests aren’t accurate.

“It’s not an exact science and trying to predict it is very hard.”

Magistrate Elliott said he acknowledged the reading was “very low” and gave Cameron the minimum mandatory 3 months disqualification and a $300 fine.

No conviction was recorded.