Roadside drug-testing fail: ‘No device available’

Police are yet to find a device to carry out reliable roadside drug testing despite a law change two years ago that gave them the power to do them – if not the technology.

Correspondence between Nelson mayor Nick Smith, who has been campaigning for testing since soon after a young man was killed by a driver high on methamphetamine on New Year’s Eve in 2017, and Transport Minister Simeon Brown has been released on the FYI site under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

Brown, in February replied to Smith saying that police had tried to find a testing device to carry out roadside drug saliva tests.

“After rigorous testing, it was found that there was no device available to meet the criteria and intent of the legislation. Further amendments to the legislation are required to enable testing to happen.”

Driving while impaired was previously illegal but a 2022 law change specifically listed 25 qualifying drugs with criminal limits and meant police could do roadside tests.

It came after a year in which 93 people – nearly a third of 2021’s road deaths – died in crashes in which the driver had been using drugs, police information shows. Random roadside drug testing was described as a “key tool” in combating drugged drivers and was meant to be introduced in 2023.

Brown on Sunday said in a statement alcohol and drug testing would be a key part of the Government’s road safety work and it would be a “top priority” to introduce legislation similar to Australia’s to make roadside testing possible.

Under the Australian system, roadside tests confirmed drugs were present but they were sent to labs for more-precise information.

“The previous government utterly failed to establish a workable framework that would give police the powers to do roadside drug testing,” Brown said. “Their legislation was flawed and unworkable meaning drugged drivers have continued to avoid detection.”

Green transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said expert advice before the 2022 law change was that it was not possible to get roadside tests with enough accuracy to be used as evidence. They also had a high rate of false positives, she said.

She had pushed for strong evidence that the tests worked reliably and accurately but she feared the National-led government would push on with unreliable testing.

“In opposition they campaigned on vibe and in government they are governing that way,” she said.

Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said her Government had been in the process of changing legislation to allow roadside testing but this was not done before the election and the new Government had not picked it up.

Those changes would have meant that a roadside test would be used to determine if drugs were present, for which the technology was available, but the test would need to go to a lab to find out what the drug levels were.

Smith, a former National MP, said the length of time to get drug testing implemented was “very frustrating” while places like the United Kingdom and Australia showed it could work. It was depressing every time he read of another person killed by a driver on drugs, he said.

AA road safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen said “for reasons no-one can really explain”, the 2022 legislation said roadside tests had to be up to evidential standard, but that technology did not exist – and still didn’t.

He believed New Zealand should follow the lead of Australia.

It was estimated 90 to 100 people died each year in cars in which the driver was impaired by drugs.