Medical teams are to test drivers for drugs at a police roadblock in a pilot scheme in an unidentified northern Italian city next weekend, the government announced Friday.
The initiative, which will take place on the weekend of August 30-31, follows a highly publicised car crash Thursday in which a 25-year-old pregnant woman was killed by a man found to be driving under the influence of cocaine.
The man had been stopped a few hours previously but allowed to drive on after passing a breathalyser test.
''These tragedies will be avoidable if we give the police better ways of immediately detecting the presence of drugs as well as alcohol,'' said Carlo Giovanardi, the cabinet undersecretary for drug policy who came up with the idea.
Current breathalysers do not pick up drugs and the only way to see if someone has been using him is to take them to hospital for tests.
In practice, unless the driver shows tell-tale symptoms, this is very rarely done.
Next weekend's pilot scheme, which Giovanardi will attend, will be extended to the rest of the country if it proves successful, the undersecretary said.
Compulsory drug tests for learner drivers will be tried out in four Italian cities this autumn while testing will also be made compulsory for bus drivers, airline pilots and other ''risky'' jobs, the government has said.
