A man in his 60s was taken by Norwegian police after a wobbly journey and was suspected of drunk driving when a blood test showed that he had 1.2 per mille alcohol in his blood.
However, the man was acquitted in the district court in Bergen after blaming his diet. He claimed that the test values were raised by the prescription sleeping pills he took in combination with the fruit diet he was on.
In particular, he claimed that he drank large amounts of grapefruit juice, which doctors testified could produce results similar to large doses of active substances in the man's sleeping pills.
The court found that the man had taken too strong a dose of the sleeping medication, but the doctor's explanation could not be ruled out. He was therefore acquitted of the drunk driving charge but convicted of negligence, as witnesses had seen how the car he was driving had crossed into oncoming traffic several times.
