Worrying weekend of drunk drivers
Four drink drivers caught in Nelson at the weekend were more than four times over the limit.
Police are alarmed at the spike saying it is a concern for the whole community. They are calling for people with alcohol issues to seek help.
On Friday police pulled over a 60-year-old Nelson woman at 5pm on Halifax St. She recorded a 1012mcg breath alcohol reading, more than four times over the legal limit.
At 11.30pm the same night a car was caught travelling more than 100kmh along a residential street in Richmond.
Police saw and stopped the driver who was doing 117kmh along Hill St. The 20-year-old Nelson man had a 1032mcg breath alcohol reading and was charged with drink driving and dangerous driving charges.
The next day police stopped two drivers on Gloucester St in Nelson between 7pm and 8.30pm who were also well over the legal drinking limit.
A 31-year-old Nelson man had an alcohol reading of 960mcg and the second man recorded 1097mcg.
All four drivers were suspended from driving on the spot for 28 days and will appear in the Nelson District Court.
Nelson Bays prevention manager Senior Sergeant Scott Richardson said people should ask themselves if they would drink three to four bottles of wine or half a bottle of vodka and drive their car or let someone else get behind the wheel.
That level of alcohol consumption is roughly what it would take for an average person to blow four times over the 250mcg legal driving alcohol breath limit.
Richardson said the amount of alcohol these drivers were caught driving under would normally see someone in a state that bordered on alcohol poisoning.
Worryingly these ‘‘hardened’’ drinkers could appear to be fully functioning and were in need of help.
He said anyone who blew near 1000mcg had alcohol issues. ‘‘This isn’t [about] people that have two or three glasses of wine after work.’’
‘‘If you know someone who’s got a drinking problem like that, try and talk to that person about it.
‘‘But if that person’s not going to accept help call us, or call Crime Stoppers before they kill a child on the road and impact on a lot of people’s lives.’’
Richardson said a third of all serious injury and fatal crashes have alcohol related factors.
Once a person reaches the 250mcg legal driving limit they are four times more likely to crash their vehicle. Over 400mcg they are about 16 times more likely to be involved in a serious crash.
‘‘We want people to look out for their mates and look out for their families because they [drink drivers] shouldn’t be on the roads.’’
Richardson said drink driving cases had seen a national downturn and he wasn’t sure what had prompted the spike in Nelson’s high-range offences.
‘‘Obviously we would rather people don’t get caught drink driving and seek out that help beforehand.’’
He said it was often a misconception that drink driving only occurred during evening hours.
As a result Richardson said Nelson police would continue to patrol any road at any time with regular checkpoints around the city.
‘‘We’re out there ... and we’re catching these people.’’
Nelson police also caught a number of people at the weekend at the lower end of the drink driving threshold. Police said the best plan for those drinking was to not drive.
Meanwhile, official information figures obtained by Radio New Zealand showed that last year 1.9 million breath tests were recorded – the lowest number in nearly a decade. Air New Zealand has a reputation for its elaborate, big-budget, starstudded safety videos.
But two young sisters have caught the airline’s attention with their homemade, rural version filmed on their family’s property in Mapua.
Ella and Heidi Stephens, aged 13 and 11, created their own Air New Zealand safety video using the usual script, but some unusual props.
The video starts with Ella running down a hill on the semi-rural property near Nelson before announcing, ‘‘Kia ora, and welcome aboard this Air New Zealand flight’’.
The video features the best of grassroots New Zealand, including a red and black checkered flannel shirt, camouflage trousers, and Red Band gumboots.
Other props include a ‘‘business premier’’ wheelbarrow and their cat Malibu. They even crashed a homemade trolley down a hill to simulate take-off.
The sisters posted the video on the Air New Zealand Facebook page last week and caught the attention of the company’s brand team.
Air New Zealand’s general manager of global brand and content marketing, Jodi Williams, was so impressed that the airline