Roadside drug-test trials for suspect drivers

By BRIDGET CARTER and NZPA

Drivers may face roadside testing that can determine whether they are under the influence of drugs such as speed, Ecstasy and cannabis.

The tests, used by the Californian Highway Patrol in the United States and by police in Australia, are to be used in conjunction with drink-drive testing and could be introduced within months.

The national road policing manager, Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, said he believed people were now also driving under the influence of drugs such as speed and Ecstasy as well as cannabis.

"If we are trying to reduce road trauma, we can't ignore something that is staring us in the face."

The issue was raised in Whangarei last month during a coroner's inquest, when a Northland police crash expert backed suggestions that motorists be tested for cannabis use.

Coroner Peter Mahood said Clive Ian Reid, 42, of Kumeu, and Regina Ereti Walker, 63, of Wellsford, died in a head-on collision near Waipu on January 5 after Mr Reid tried to overtake another vehicle.

A blood test revealed Mr Reid had used cannabis, but it could not be established if that had contributed to the accident.

Mrs Walker's husband, Ron, said there was no doubt in his mind that cannabis had contributed.

"The road is so straight you could drive an aeroplane down there and not hit anything.

"The last thing she said to me before she left for Whangarei was that my dinner was in the fridge and all I had to do was put it in the oven. It was the last time I saw her alive.

"At night I find it pretty difficult to stop thinking about her ... It's the way she died that's upsetting. We were married for 41 years."

The Government needed to develop a test for cannabis use, he said.

Mr Fitzgerald sent two police officers to Australia last month to investigate how the drug tests could work in New Zealand.

One of the two, Senior Sergeant Bruce Lyon of Waikato, said a law change was needed before the Australian tests could be effective here.

Under present legislation, a driver could be charged with driving with excess breath- or blood-alcohol or driving while incapable of having proper control of a motor vehicle.

There was no proof that drugs such as cannabis left a driver "incapable" of proper control of a vehicle, he said.

In Victoria, police had the option of another charge - driving while impaired, but not necessarily incapable, by any drug.

"If you are thought to be under the influence of alcohol they will do that test.

"If it comes back negative, they can switch into this driving while impaired legislation, which enables them to carry out almost a doctor's equivalent to a clinical examination."

"It probably will stack up here, but it will take time."

Nearly 28 per cent of all fatal road accidents in the Waikato involved drugs, Mr Lyon said. Research carried out more than five years ago revealed that 39.9 per cent of Northland drivers killed in accidents had cannabis in their blood.