Fast lane to fatalities

SIMON EDWARDS

Drink-drivers are putting at risk a record of no fatalities on Lower Hutt roads stretching back to July 2010.

The officer in charge of traffic policing in the city, Senior Sergeant Warren Harris, says the high levels of intoxication some crashed or pulled over drivers are showing "really stands out to me".

Motorists underestimate the potential for tragedy if there's a crash, he says.

"There's a very fine line between an injury accident and death.

"I've been to crashes where there's heaps of damage and you ask yourself 'how the hell did that person survive?' I've also seen incidents where there's not much damage at all but someone has died."

Hutt police are proud of the fact no-one has died on the city's roads since a crash in July 2010 at the State Highway 2/Kennedy-Good Bridge intersection.

The accident followed another fatality three months earlier, also involving an older person, on SH2.

A database of Hutt road fatalities shows that for 2007, 2008 and 2009, there were two, four and one deaths respectively. In the previous decade the local road death toll was six to eight people each year.

Around the nation 280 people died on our roads last year, the lowest annual toll since 1952. In 2010, the national toll was 375.

Mr Harris believes there are a number of factors behind the clean fatality sheet for the Hutt going back nearly 18 months, not least the emphasis police are putting on the Safer Journeys campaign.

Mr Harris describes a "top 10" of local enforcement targets, including basics like seatbelt and cyclist and motorcyclist helmet wearing, and ensuring young people have a licence and are driving to its conditions.

"Those ads with the father shooting up through the car roof [after his son successfully completes his licence test] are so true. Young people are very vulnerable after they've just gained their restricted licence."

Last Wednesday, a police patrol breath- tested a 32-year-old truck driver who was found asleep at the wheel of his car on a Lower Hutt street at 2.30pm. He blew a breath alcohol reading of 1125 micrograms per litre of breath. The limit is 400.

There was an open can of beer in the car's cupholder and an open box of cans by the front passenger seat. Police were alerted by a call from a member of the public. The man's car ran on petrol but at a service station he had filled it with diesel.

On January 9, an 18-year-old who crashed into a sign on Petone Esplanade was recorded with a breath alcohol level of 750 micrograms. For drivers under 20, the limit is zero.

Flicking through the city's drink-driving incident book, it's not hard to find other examples of drivers massively over the limit or lucky to be alive, such as the driver who flipped his car on Oxford Tce on December 22 after hitting a parked ute (1109 micrograms) or the driver who fell asleep and ploughed through the fence of a home on Taita Dr, across the front yard, and through another fence before he hit the neighbour's house (607 micrograms).

A 17-year-old blew 906 micrograms on New Year's Eve.

Mr Harris says police are catching an average of 10 to a dozen drink-drivers in Lower Hutt each week. "It's like the Rugby World Cup after-party has continued on into Christmas and the new year.

"In the case of that truck driver, that's his living. He's going to struggle to maintain his job . . . What was he thinking? People have got to step up and show responsibility."

Mr Harris says the public are increasingly intolerant of drink-drivers and he's pleased with the number of people who will ring police when they see dangerous or risky behaviour on the roads.

- Hutt News