Despite stepped-up efforts to catch drink-drivers, 109 people died because of impaired driving last year. Photo / Dean Purcell
Police are disappointed that extra efforts to catch drink-drivers have had little impact in reducing fatal road crashes caused by alcohol or drug abuse.
Ministry of Transport figures just published for last year show that 109 people were killed in 99 crashes involving drivers who were either over
the alcohol limit or impaired by drugs.
That was only marginally down from 2005, when 115 people were killed in 100 collisions.
Last year's figure was three times lower than in 1987, when 329 people died from alcohol or drug-related crashes, but it was no better than in 2002.
Alcohol was implicated in 27.8 per cent of fatal crashes in the three years to last December, and other drugs suspected in 3.8 per cent of cases.
Various combinations of alcohol and other drugs were blamed for 2 per cent of fatal crashes.
The ministry also reported a hefty rise in drink-drive prosecutions last year - up by 2241 to 29,289 - fuelling police frustration. Messages against drink-driving are being ignored by too many youngsters, given that 30 per cent of drivers aged between 15 and 19 years involved in fatal crashes last year were affected by alcohol or drugs, up from 20 per cent in 2005.
So were 31 per cent of those aged from 20 to 24 years, although that was slightly less than the 2005 figure of 32 per cent.
Over a three-year period from 2004, more than 82 per cent of drivers affected by alcohol or other drugs in fatal crashes were male.
Of impaired female drivers involved in fatal smashes, none was in the 50- to 54-year age bracket.
A study conducted in 2004 showed that drivers aged between 15 and 19 who had hit the under-20 limit of 30mg of alcohol for each 100ml of blood were 15 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than sober drivers aged 30 or more.
Youngsters at the adult alcohol limit of 80mg/100ml were 86.6 times more likely.
National road policing manager Superintendent Dave Cliff said last night that the latest statistics added weight to a police call for the adult limit to be reduced to 50mg and for the youth limit to be "virtually zero".
