KEY POINTS:
It's not every day you hear police say they hope that almost half a million dollars invested in road policing won't be needed.
But that's exactly what New Zealand's new road policing manager, Superintendent Paula Rose, would like to see happen with two new booze buses, which cost
$472,000 and began operations in Auckland last night.
"We'd actually rather catch no one," she told the Herald soon after the buses were launched at the police Auckland Harbour Bridge complex yesterday.
The unfortunate reality, though, is that the booze buses will most likely be used to process more drink-drivers faster than ever before due to their having a larger capacity than the smaller vehicles they replace.
Police in the Auckland City, Counties Manukau and Waitemata police districts stop more than one drunk driver every hour, with an average of 9200 people caught a year.
Looking nationally, the figures are even worse, with police stopping 31,000 drink drivers - or 3.5 every hour - in the year to July.
And while Ms Rose hopes it won't happen, those figures may rise even higher thanks to the increased resources with the new buses.
The old booze buses will be sent to smaller rural areas, potentially increasing the drink-driving catch rate in those spots too.
And by next month the Auckland region will have five new officers making up an extra team to staff the buses, meaning there's an even higher risk of being caught.
"It means we'll be able to operate more buses, more often," said Waitemata strategic road policing manager Superintendent John Kelly.
"It's a pretty clear sign that drink-driving is a major problem, that drink-driving has been increasing over the last few years. We're processing more, we're catching more and we really need to try and reverse that trend.
"The purpose of the booze bus is to put out a signal that if you choose to drink and drive, then the chances of being caught are increasing. It's a deterrent programme."
Although police say there are no immediate plans for drugs testing in New Zealand, the booze buses have space for drug-testing technology should it eventually be needed.
"We all pay for road accidents, whether it's through our ACC levies or the personal cost of a family member or friend being hurt or killed," says ACC injury prevention manager Phil Wright. "It's simply unacceptable that drunk drivers continue to kill innocent New Zealanders."
DRINK DRIVE
* Alcohol is involved in a third of crashes causing injury in New Zealand.
* ACC pays out $50 million a year in medical and rehabilitative costs.
* Claims to ACC for car crash injuries have risen 45 per cent in the past five years.
