Editorial: Get tougher on repeat drink-drivers

The number of drink-driving convictions in the Hawke's Bay is dropping.

It is good to see that the number of drink-driving convictions in Hawke's Bay is dropping.

We reported this week that Ministry of Justice figures show that 1093 people recorded drink-driving convictions in the province in the 12 months to June last year, down from 1218 two years earlier.

This is good news because it shows that the drink-drive message is getting through to most of us.

If people actively start thinking about what could happen if they have one too many, they may rather err on the side of caution and have one less drink before driving.

Police say a driver leaving the recent Mission Concert had drunk a bottle of wine, but thought that because it had been over a period of time that this was okay. Clearly it was not.

I say most of us are getting the message, because unfortunately there is still a hard core of repeat offenders who just don't seem to get it. More than a quarter of the latest number recorded their third or subsequent conviction last year - a small drop in the number of recidivist drink drivers from 2011/12, but still a rise from 2010/11.

In one of the worst cases last year a woman in her 20s was convicted for the region's highest breath alcohol reading of 1607 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. This was more than four times the legal limit.

Interestingly, the number of national convictions has fallen significantly over the last three years and the Automobile Association is putting that drop down to a zero tolerance for drivers under the age of 20.

That is excellent news.

All we need now is to crack down even harder on those repeat offenders. Something needs to be done to get the message across before their actions land them in court on manslaughter charges.