Police v the country’s worst drink drivers

A motorist nabbed in Tasman has the dubious distinction of having the highest breath alcohol reading recorded in the country over the past five years.

It comes as police release, under the Official Information Act, drink-driving statistics for each police district for the five years from 2017 to 2021, which make for sobering reading.

The highest reading recorded in the country in that time was a motorist who returned a breath alcohol reading of 2235mcgs – almost nine times over the legal limit – in Tasman in 2020.

Meanwhile, a teen driver rearends another driver waiting at the lights. ‘‘Very minor, no injuries,’’ says the police report.

But it is serious, particularly for the 19-year-old male driver who caused the crash at St Leonards, just north of Dunedin’s CBD.

He tells officers he’s been at an end-of-year rugby function, where he drank 10 bottles of beer. That resulted in him recording a breath alcohol reading of 766 micrograms (mcgs) per litre of breath.

With the legal limit for a person under 20 is zero, he faces a court appearance this month.

Another teen drink driver stopped in Dunedin that weekend was a 19-year-old, who police stopped for speeding in the central city early on a Saturday.

The highest breath alcohol reading in Canterbury was a driver who recorded 1900mcgs in 2019, while in Southern the highest total was 1621mcgs, in 2018.

The overall number of drinkdrivers nabbed declined when comparing 2017 with 2021, except for in Northland, largely due to the pandemic and a change in policing.

Superintendent Steve Greally, the director of the National Road Policing Centre, said motorists with some of the highest readings in the last five years were likely to be ‘‘functioning alcoholics’’ – where they appeared in control then their result ‘‘can surprise everybody’’, Greally said.

‘‘Unfortunately it is probably not as uncommon as you want it to be.’’

Greally said Covid had a ‘‘huge impact’’ on the way police deployed around the country.

Due to concerns over the spread of the virus, police initially halted proactive checkpoints. Rather, officers would pull over any driver suspected of drink-driving.

That changed with vaccinations and Covid variations, he said.

Not testing led to ‘‘undetected offending because people are not deterred’’ by seeing police on the roads, Greally said.

‘‘People are less likely to drive drunk if they think they are going to be tested on the way home.’’

Greally recommended: ‘‘If you are going to drink you are not driving ... simple as that’’.

In fact, he could be the one to pull you over. ‘‘I pull over people regularly, when I’m in a patrol vehicle,’’ Greally said.