Roadside breath tests were backed by the Senate today.

Kathy Lynn Simmons, the Attorney-General, told the Upper House that the legislation covered the setting up of checkpoints, as well as obtaining breath testing equipment and the formalising of preliminary testing procedures — including adding an offence for drivers who refused tests.

Ms Simmons added that all vehicles going through checkpoints would be “checked and treated the same” to stay in line with the island’s Constitution.

She said that the checkpoints would be manned by at least five police officers.

A “balancing act” would be required for concerns over the invasion of drivers’ privacy.

Motorists would be asked for their licences and registration, and could be questioned on whether they had been drinking.

“As the officer is looking at these documents and talking to you, he will be looking for obvious signs of impairment,” Ms Simmons said.

Drivers could be breathalysed if police were “not satisfied with your behaviour”.

Physical tests would include walking in a straight line, touching the tip of the nose by hand and following a moving object with the eyes.

“If you pass the test, you move on,” she said. “If you fail the test, you will be arrested.”

The Attorney-General conceded that checkpoints could cause delays, and police would also manage the flow of traffic at the stops.

Breath testing devices, which had already been identified, would initially require $25,000, starting with five to six units.

Training for officers in Hampshire in the UK would come out of the service’s normal training budget, Ms Simmons added.

Statistics heard in the Senate included a total of 1,240 collisions reported to police last year: 606 were damage only, 555 entailed minor injury, 64 were serious and there were 15 deaths.

There were 1,557 people treated in hospital in 2016 for traffic collisions, costing $2.65 million in health insurance claims.

Senator Justin Mathias of the One Bermuda Alliance suggested breath testing all drivers for consistency, while Senator James Jardine, the independent senator, welcomes having the procedures of preliminary tests spelled out.

Mr Jardine queried the circumstances in which officers could set up checkpoints “as a matter of urgency”.

Ms Simmons said police could set up checkpoints without the prior written permission of the senior magistrate for “unplanned, unorganised pop-up events” such as sports teams celebrating a win — in which case, officers could get the magistrate’s verbal approval down the phone.

Anthony Richardson, the government senator, said the Bill represented “common sense”, and was “preventive as opposed to punitive”.

Senator Michelle Simmons, the independent senator, said that Bermuda had one of the world’s worst rates of road deaths, but expressed reservations over officers in a small community falling subject to bias at checkpoints — with the possibility of some impaired drivers getting “waved on”.

But the Attorney-General said that training in Britain would specifically address the issue of police dealing with people they knew personally.

Senator Jason Hayward of the Progressive Labour Party said the life-saving legislation had been “a long time coming”, and recalled a “near-death experience” this Christmas when a “clearly” impaired driver came “speeding and weaving on my side of the road” as he drove home from a family dinner, with his two sons in the car.

“I almost felt like I was playing chicken,” Mr Hayward recalled. “I slammed on the brakes, held onto the wheel and closed my eyes.”

Mr Hayward said the shock had reduced him to tears, knowing that “my life could be taken from me through no fault of my own”.

He also saluted the Gazette’s Drive for Change campaign, which included a push for the introduction of roadside testing.

Transport minister Walter Roban commented on the Bill’s approval: “It is our aim to introduce measures which will bring awareness, shape behaviour and yield safer road conditions for all motorists.”