Traffic Alcohol Group Last of Mohicans

Candor Trust Media Release

Operation Safer Counties-Manukau was run on Friday and Saturday nights with checkpoints stopping 13,356 vehicles for drivers breath tests to find that 274 returned positive results.

The Candor Trust say though the result is too high, it largely just reflects the high drink driver recidivism that New Zealands slack DUI laws & "free for all" driver licensing system naturally promotes.

"This rate just reported from Manukau though quite horrendous for 2008 is actually far less alarming than the masses of drug drivers slipping through New Zealand's incompetent checkpoints", say Candor.

Drug driving Houdinis slip the checkpoint net everyweek, Nationwide at 4x the rate drink drivers were nabbed in Manukau over the weekend, at the minimum.

What is completely unacceptable is that the Houdinis have equivalent risk of causing death to female drivers on NZ's blood alcohol limit once attribution analyses is done say Candor. (Source; Boorman Presentation, Australasian Policing Conference, 2007)

The difference between New Zealand and our appallingly high road toll and other countries with their insubstantial tolls and far lower rates of impaired driving lies in the blinkered name and ill starred mission of our chequebook point cops.

While New Zealands ineffectual taskforce is called the "Traffic Alcohol Group" the Australian's taxes provide them with a "Traffic Drug and Alcohol Group", as is appropriate to the modern era. As describes the Policing approach for up to 20 years now almost everywhere but in New Zealand

A presentation to the Australasian Policing conference showed that the longterm trend there as here was for reductions in drink drive deaths at every blood alcohol level for a decade, but that drug driving deaths had been cancelling out the gains at a steady rate.

By comparison New Zealands drink driving death rate has reduced albeit more slowly, but what is even more noteworthy is that our increase in drug driving deaths (defined as deaths involving drivers with over 5ng of thc (pot) in blood leaves the Australian States increases in drug driving carnage in Outback dust.

This is only to be expected. While the Traffic Alcohol Group find less than 1% of drivers are drunk at the worst times and places, phone and roadside surveys have shown that between 4-8% of drivers in New Zealand are stoned in high risk regions in the high risk time for drug crashes (daytime).

This compares unfavourably to the typical findings in Victoria where only 2% of drivers drug tested are found to be under the influence of drugs, which has been reduced by 25% since roadside testing commenced 3 years ago, with a reducing trend in the road toll resulting.

This years Australian National Drug Survey also indicated that roadside drug testing in many States has significantly reduced the rate of self reported drugged driving, since the last one was conducted (prior to testing).

The social cost of drug driving crashes in New Zealand based upon the latest analyses of deceased drivers choices of intoxicants clearly now rivals drink driving harm yet nothing is done.

"While the Australians and others are working smart with the resources allocated them our Police are working dumb, dumb and dumber by the day", say Candor, "but their political masters have declined to give them the tools they so desperately need to make a difference".

When such a critical issue as drug impaired driving has been deflected for over a decade there is a question that must be asked of any Minister who would maintain some of the bloodiest roads in the OECD.

Is it just fat cat safe BMW driving ignorance of the real danger killing up to 140 Kiwis yearly, or did you serve your political apprenticeship under tutelage of the likes of Satan, Hannibal Lecter, or Mugabe?

Since when do we make large scale local massacres non agenda items?

ENDS

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