Recidivist Drink Drivers cause concern

Counties Manukau Road Policing Manager Inspector Heather Wells said the roads were quieter this weekend but the drunks were still out there. 8 checkpoints were set up in Manukau and Papakura Districts on Friday and Saturday night. 9,540 vehicles were stopped over two nights and 205 drivers will be going to court to answer charges of excess breath alcohol. 36 drivers elected to have a blood sample taken. Inspector Wells says it is unacceptable to have this number of drink drivers on our roads.

The Court Bailiffs were also out checking vehicles that were registered to people who have outstanding fines and reparation owing to victims. In total Court Bailiffs seized 43 vehicles and collected $8, 129 cash. They cleared $77,442 warrants.

26 arrests were made for a variety of offences such as stolen vehicles, failing to stop, assaults, wanted on warrant and Driving whilst Disqualified. 63 drivers had their licences suspended and 36 vehicles were impounded.

One driver was apprehended and processed and found to be over the legal limit. He had his licence suspended. He then used another set of keys and drove through the same checkpoint again. He was consequently processed the second time just one hour later and was again over the legal limit.
Another driver was apprehended and blew 515 micrograms of Alcohol per litre of breath. He had 5 previous convictions and 3 Warrants to arrest. A third male aged 63 blew 1078 (the legal limit is 400) and has had 8 previous convictions for Drink Driving. A fourth male driver blew 777 and had 4 previous convictions. And another male processed had 7 previous convictions. One male was processed for the third time in 7 months. A large number of all drivers processed had at least one previous conviction.

Inspector Wells says she is deeply concerned to see the number of people out there who obviously have 'drink problems'. It is one thing to drink but to put innocent people's lives in jeopardy is unacceptable.

It was a close call at one checkpoint when a Learner driver went into a checkpoint and hit another car and almost ran two officers over. She ran over the cones before finally being stopped. Her reason for driving was to pick up a drunk driver.

The results from this weekend still show there are a percentage of drivers on our roads who show a total disregard for the safety of other road users. Inspector Wells says that it is time people thought about the consequences of Drinking and driving. Too many innocent people are being killed or injured on our roads through drivers who break the laws.

Police are committed to continue with this hard line approach to remove these high risk offenders to ensure safety for other road users. Inspector Wells says this is a community problem which needs a major attitudinal change.