MEDIA RELEASE
17 May 2007

Alcohol Healthwatch view is Limiting

Candor Trust says Alcohol Healthwatch's support for Road Police manager Dave Cliffs call to lower alcohol limits to 50mg per 100ml of blood for adult drivers is thoroughly misguided and could severely limit progress.

Director Rebecca Williams has alleged that deaths and injuries would be prevented but all statistics refute that, which is why the proposal last made in years ago got no traction.

The Trust maintain that Police were being duplicitous in saying they have a report which indicates 14 lives could be saved yearly by a lower adult limit, or at least that they believe such quackery. "They have their eye off the ball - drugs are it".

"This claptraps's easily disproved" says Candor Co-ordinator Mrs Ford. Ministry of Transport Statistics we just obtained show only 2 people were killed in 2005 while (probably not by) driving with low alcohol levels between of 50mg to 80mg, and that this is a typical yearly result.

Contrast this to the ESR/ Police study finding risk drugs in half of the road dead, versus only a quarter of them having been drunk.

Williams asserted that staying below the proposed alcohol limits means people will make better decisions about whether to continue drinking and whether to drive or not. "Not if they have drugs in them", say Candor.

It is highly irresponsible to propagate this myth anyway, it's playing with fire as low risk social drinkers who weren't a problem may well in the NZ context just switch to high potency pot. We aren't like Sweden where drugs are a big no no.

The reality is that almost without exception those causing carnage have no regard for alcohol limits whatsoever. "Having readings at double the limit, as most dead Kiwi drink drivers do, in no way suggests these people thought about the Plod".

The menaces do not make any attempt to stay under as is obvious. Ms Williams really should take a look at the facts from a road safety perspective which she clearly has a narrow view of, since layperson's opinions don't save lives.

Removing the option to have a beer or two with a meal or socially, which is not dangerous (low alcohol levels reduce urban crash rates per reputable studies), will mean those seeking to relax may just transition to drug use or more of it.

We will soon be seeing the youth toll rise a little due to the removal of BZP based party pills from the market as night lifers move back towards using "P" and alcohol again.

So Candor is in tune with SADD and Alcohol Healthwatch's support of a zero limit for restricted drivers / youth - which essentially addresses but half the problem.

And a zero limit for all those convicted of drink driving as suggested by Alcohol Healthwatch is a perfectly brilliant idea, and one that should have been implemented immediately that the technology became available.

This idea can also be extended to drug misuse, which is something Candor Trust has lately written to the Ministers of Land Transport and others seeking action on.

All that is required is a code on the "high risk" drivers license, backed up by some practical interventions.

These can include; alcohol ignition interlocks for second or third offenders, alcohol detecting anklets, mandatory drug testing for ongoing use of illicit drugs. Which would be undertaken by Corrections staff or ones own Dr.

And if recidivism occurs despite intensive assistance not to re-offend then we should be revoking the licenses of unfit people for as long as they can not comply with societies expectations.

"We must take issue with Rebecca Williams claim that a lower adult limit is a low cost option to reduce alcohol-related harm since the necessary enforcement infrastructure and publicity mechanisms are already in place".

This is because, to spend more on drink driving prevention is pouring money down the gurgler. We now know, that as is the case in most similar Nations drugs are the main fuel for our toll which we have any power to significantly dent.

"The definition of insanity is repeating the same behaviour but expecting some different result. Drink driving is being addressed".

"It could be addressed better by way of more consistent and smarter sentencing - but changing the limit would just be irrational, per all evidence".

If results are wanted we need to go for a zero limit for everyone as that alone will bring about culture change, as was noted by a traffic psychologist from Waikato University in recent weeks.

Or we get smart, and go after the druggies who are currently causing equal harm to drinkers by killing in the range of 130 - 150 Kiwis yearly.

This group currently have a full license to kill, as Police turn a blind eye. At least until they finally do kill on about their tenth crash.

Technology is now available to seriously dent the toll by detecting drug drivers if we are at all interested in that. It is not prohibitively expensive either.

MCJ Eyecheck computers, as used by Wisconsin Police, are a few thousand per unit with no further running costs, and these are ideal for checkpoint use.

Saliva tests for traffic risk drugs only detect recent use at impairing levels and are more accurate as screening tests for impairment than alcohol breathalysers.

At the cost of a packet of smokes they would be a great investment if used at crash sites or when impairment is suspected due to erratic driving.

By getting dangerous people into the system we can then address their risk, and hopefully avoid millions they will predictably tote up in later damages. Studies are clear that the drug drivers are not a group greatly overlapping with drinkers.

Candor is prepared to raise money to buy the Police some basic crime detection tools like saliva tests in order to save over 100 lives (not an illusory 14 ), if they can't find some coin in the budget for tackling the druggie driver pestilence.

If Police had tested methadone drivers for drug driving at prior crashes just lately, then Trust Educators say that Ron Duff (pensioner killed in Cranford Street) may well have been saved from homicide by a druggy recidivist.

Police and the Courts must stop playing dumb to New Zealands real road death and injury cause, and stop using red herrings to divert the Public from reality.

ENDS

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