10 drivers a day caught drunk

Drink driving

DAVID HALLETT/The Press

TAKING RISKS: Police say people are still not getting the message about drink driving.

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Ten people a day are convicted of driving drunk on Canterbury roads, showing the message is not getting through, police say.

This week police released the names of 290 drink-drivers convicted in Canterbury courts in May. The information was released to The Press under the Official Information Act.

It is the second monthly list provided since police resumed providing regular lists of drink-driving convictions. The Canterbury total for April was 274.

In the latest figures, 20 per cent of those convicted were under 20, including a 15-year-old.

Twelve per cent of the total had committed three or more drink-driving offences.

The director of the Christchurch-based National Addiction Centre, Doug Sellman, said the list reflected the "heavy drinking culture that currently flourishes in New Zealand".

Sellman has criticised the Government's decision in July to not lower the drink-drive limit from 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood to 50mg.

"Just imagine if [the list] included all the people who are actually drunk and driving," he said.

The number of drink-drivers under 20 was no surprise because teenagers made up about 20 per cent of those killed through acute alcohol deaths such as self-poisoning or in car crashes, Sellman said.

"About 10 per cent of the 700,000 heavy drinkers in New Zealand are teenagers. These drink-driving data confirm what is known elsewhere; that although youth are in the minority of heavy drinkers overall, nevertheless they are causing a disproportionate amount of the harm."

Repeat offenders were likely to be alcohol dependent, Sellman said.

"The key issue in my mind on this 12 per cent is whether any of them have been given treatment opportunities."

Canterbury road policing manager Al Stewart said the list showed people were not getting the message about drink-driving.

"Despite the high levels of enforcement and accords in the community and everyone indicating they are over drink-drivers, people are still doing it. We are still finding far too many," he said.

"Any alcohol and driving don't mix and we all know good people make bad decisions. We would think that perhaps the implications of being caught drink-driving when it comes to your career or perhaps having your name published in the paper would be a deterrent.

"But the best deterrent should be that if you drink and drive you risk harming yourself, your mates and others in the community."

Until May last year police regularly released the names of those convicted of drink-driving, but that stopped because of privacy and legal concerns. After further legal advice police agreed to release drink-driving conviction lists if they were requested under the Official Information Act.

Canterbury police are working towards a system where names can be provided weekly.

Drink-driving convictions

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