NZ First targets drink-drive rules

‘‘Lowering the drinkdrive limit without restricting access to alcohol is like telling kids not to eat candy, then leaving them outside a candy store.’’ Road safety campaigner Clive Matthew-Wilson

NZ First says the lower drinkdriving limits have targeted the wrong people, and it is calling for the old limit to be reinstated.

NZ First MP Darroch Ball has submitted a member’s bill seeking to repeal the 2014 law which lowered drink-driving limits.

The stricter limits had ‘‘demonstrably failed’’ at lowering both the rate of offending and the number of fatalities on New Zealand roads caused by drink-driving, Ball said.

‘‘The vast majority of drivers in fatal drink-driving accidents have been in the range of twice the legal limit. These are the recidivist, highlevel drink-drivers we need to be targeting – not hard-working Kiwis who have a beer or wine after work.’’ The lower limits also had a negative effect on rural pubs and the communities which supported them, he said.

New Zealand’s law change, lowering the blood alcohol limit from

80 milligrams of alcohol per

100 millilitres of blood to 50mg, came into effect in December 2014.

The breath alcohol limit was also cut from 400mcg to 250mcg.

In 2014 there were 30 road deaths with positive alcohol readings, while the following year there were

48. As a proportion of all road fatalities, those with alcohol involved rose from 11 per cent in

2014 to 14 per cent in 2015. The number of fatalities involving people who were over the drink-drive limit at the time also increased in 2015.

A study found those who had been drinking, driving, then dying were drinking more than before, and more drugs were thrown into the deadly cocktail.

Forensic toxicologist Hilary Hamnett led the study, which was thought to be the first of its kind, taking a look at alcohol and drugs in dead drivers and motorcyclists.

Following the study’s release in February, road safety campaigner Clive Matthew-Wilson said the findings were unsurprising. ‘‘Lowering the drink-drive limit without restricting access to alcohol is like telling kids not to eat candy, then leaving them outside a candy store.’’

Ball’s proposed Land Transport (Repeal of Lower Specified Alcohol Limits) Amendment Bill would reinstate the legal breath-alcohol limit of 400mcg per litre of breath, and blood-alcohol limit of 80mg per 100ml of blood.