Subscribe to RSSWhat To Do With Such Motorists?
You have to worry sometimes about how bad the Kiwi drinking problem is and why enough is not being done with repeat offenders..
At 930am this morning when school kids have just made it to school, a motorist blows three times over the limit.
Has she been drinking all night? Are there any kids in the house?
She doesn’t give a toss about the dangers she is placing others on the road in.
It is the third time in two years she has returned a result over 1100mgms . What are the courts doing - treating such people with kid gloves?
It was only chance she got spotted as a police officer noticed her car in trouble during busy morning traffic in Hamilton.
A dog handler was travelling along Wairere Dr when he noticed something wrong with the vehicle in front of him. Police say the officer saw the vehicle shudder to a stop, getting out of his car to check if the driver was alright he established the car had run out of petrol.
Acting District Road Policing Manager, Senior Sergeant Jeff Penno, said: “Two men came to the officer’s aid as he moved the vehicle to the side of the road however while he was doing this he noticed fumes that obviously couldn’t be fuel, that appeared to be coming from the driver.”
Calling for assistance another unit arrived and the woman was required to undergo a breath screening test that came back negative and she was then taken for an evidential breath test.
“The woman returned a result of 1460mgms, given the legal adult alcohol limit is 400mgms of alcohol per litre of breath this is very concerning, particularly given the time of day when traffic flows are heavy with many parents transporting kids to school or child care.
“Like any District the Waikato has a small number of recidivist drink drivers who repeatedly put other road users at risk, this driver was no different in that it is the third time in two years she has returned a result over 1100mgms and she was charged with excess breath alcohol, third or subsequent offence.”
1 Comments
hi. The reality is that harsher sentences are expensive to impose and do not usually prevent re-offending once the person leaves prison. In fact, as the outgoing chief of police put it, there is pretty clear evidence that prisons act as “universities for crime.”
In answer to what can be done I would say raise the drinking age, raise the price of alcohol, limit the availability of alcohol (less sales in supermarket, much more limited hours for liquor stores, more limits on the number of liquor stores and off licenses etc) and place much stricter restrictions on alcohol advertising would be a good start.
Putting more money into drug and alcohol addiction treatment and referring more drink and drive offenders would also probably help. A while ago I aske dthe Minitser of Police about this and she told me that only 7% of first time drink drive offenders are referred for drug and alcohol treatment. only 17% of repeat d & d offenders are referred for treatment even though it seems reasonable to think most probably have a drug and/or alcohol problem.
Finally, interlocks can work but only if the person is driving a registered car.which often, sadly, is not the case with repeat drink drivers. These people are often addicts who have pretty chaotic lives and may well be driving a stolen/borrowed/illegal car.