Young heeding 'zero tolerance' law

NICOLE GOURLEY

WORD UP: Southland Girls' High School Students Against Drink Driving committee members, from left, Becky Wilson, 18, and Fern McAulay and Katrina Burgess, both 17.

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Police say only one person was caught under the new Zero Tolerance legislation at the weekend in Queenstown.

The teenager was picked up by Queenstown police early yesterday morning.

A Queenstown police officer said it was a good result because "at this time of the year and on the weekend, we normally pick up more offenders".

Meanwhile, Invercargill police said the roads were very quiet at the weekend, which was promising.

This week Southland schoolchildren will make an extra effort to spread the message to never drink and drive.

Be a Zero or Hero will be the theme of the annual Students Against Drink Driving (SADD) Awareness Week in Schools, which starts today.

SADD committees members are organising events in their schools this week to celebrate the new Zero Tolerance law and raise awareness about the dangers of drink-driving.

Leaders of the SADD committees in their school Vin McIvor (Northern Southland College), Fern McAulay (Southland Girls' High School), and Shannon June (James Hargest College) welcomed the new law.

Vin said the new law was great because it would keep more young people safe on the roads.

SADD chief executive Anna Reid said the law change was a great step forward to reduce the harm caused on the roads by young drivers.

"We believe the Zero Tolerance law will make a difference, but significant change will need to come from youth themselves and we are still working towards that culture change that might one day see drink-driving eradicated," Miss Reid said.

"Changes to the law are long overdue and our students will be pleased now to have the opportunity to further push out the sober-driving message to young drivers and to educate their peers on what the law change means for them," she said.

The Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee said 130 young people aged 15 to 24 years died from unintentional injury related to motor vehicles. Alcohol contributed to more than a third of these deaths.

Committee chairman Dr Nick Baker said: "Imposing a zero limit for drinking and driving by teens will give absolute clarity that any alcohol is too much to allow safe driving, and help turn New Zealand's grim statistics around".

"We must all work to keep young people safe around the most dangerous thing in their lives – motor vehicles," Dr Baker said.

collette.devlin@stl.co.nz

- © Fairfax NZ News

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