New Zealand drunk-driving crackdown leaves generous alcohol limit

Aug 4, 2010, 14:48 GMT

Wellington - The New Zealand government has announced new moves to combat drunk-driving but outraged road safety campaigners by shelving plans to reduce the amount of alcohol adult drivers can consume before taking the wheel for at least two years.

This despite Transport Minister Steven Joyce saying last year that the current limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood was 'ridiculous' because it allowed him to drink three-quarters of a bottle of wine in 90 minutes without breaking the law.

The government had been expected to reduce the limit to 50 milligrams in line with most European countries, Australia and South Africa, but Joyce said the cabinet had rejected this because it needed 'more information and public acceptance than we currently have.'

The police, instead, will be directed to breathalyzer-test every driver involved in a serious crash over the next two years to provide data that will support or reject the need for a lower limit.

The Alcohol Healthwatch organisation condemned the decision as 'gutless,' with director Rebecca Williams saying it would leave the government with 'blood on its hands.'

An earlier transport ministry report estimated that lowering the limit to 50 milligrams and increasing enforcement and public awareness could save 15 to 30 lives a year and prevent 320 to nearly 700 injuries.

Joyce told reporters that the limit was not 'ridiculous' for everyone, because people came in all shapes and sizes and some people had expressed concerns to him that one or two drinks could put them over a lower limit.

An Otago University expert said three 330 millilitre glasses of 4 per cent alcohol beer in an hour could put an average-sized male over the limit and a woman could exceed it after two 100 millilitre glasses of 13 per cent wine.

Political opponents said the government's decision postpones the potentially unpopular reduction until after next year's general election when the conservative National Party-led government will seek a second three-year term in power.

Prime Minister John Key said it was worrying that 36,000 New Zealanders were convicted of drunk driving last year - about 100 a day - but the public had to be firmly behind any move to lower the limit.

'Over time, I think there is a possibility that the blood-alcohol level will be lowered,' he said. 'We need to take people with us and we need New Zealanders on a large, mass, scale saying they want to support those moves and I don't think we've made that case to them yet.'

The government is, however, cracking down on young drivers who drink and repeat drunk-drivers, who will be subject to a zero alcohol limit from early next year. The limit for drivers under the age of 20 is currently 30 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood.

Adults with a second drunk-driving conviction will commit an offence if they are found with any alcohol on their breath for three years.

The maximum penalty for dangerous and/or drunk-driving causing death is being doubled to 10 years in prison.