Drivers over twice the limit should undergo treatment - AA

File photo / Herald on Sunday

Drivers caught at more than twice the legal alcohol limit should have to undergo mandatory assessments for alcohol abuse, the Automobile Association says.

A third of the 35,000 drunk drivers caught every year were more than two times over the legal limit, AA motoring affairs general manager Mike Noon told a select committee today.

"If you turn up on the road at ... twice our current limit, you are waving your hand in the air and saying 'I have a problem with alcohol'. At the moment we are not assessing those drivers."

Mr Noon said people driving at over than twice the legal alcohol limit were 200 times more likely to crash, while those at over three times the limit were 500 times more likely to crash.

"Our problem with deaths on the road, we would say, is exceedingly drunk drivers."

A fifth of drunk drivers were also recidivist offenders.

"So it's not a case that we necessarily need to catch more drivers -- we need to put treatment in place for the drivers we are catching and assess them so they don't drink and drive again. They are telling us that they have addiction problems."

Mr Noon said some of the revenue from drink driving fines should be put towards mandatory assessments for drivers caught at over twice the legal limit.

"Unless we fund treating these people, then we can only expect the cycle to continue and to have the same as we have now, with one in five drivers we've caught before."

Mr Noon also called for specialist courts for drink drivers.

"Drunk driving is completely ruining the efficiency of our courts. They are completely full after every weekend with people being processed -- there's like 100 people caught every day," he said.

"We support specialist courts where the offender sees the same judge when they come back so that if they haven't done what they're told, the judge knows -- he's got an understanding of that individual. At the moment they've got a different judge each time."

Mr Noon was speaking at the transport and industrial relations select committee at Parliament, which is considering submissions on proposed changes to the drink driving laws, including reducing the blood alcohol level for drivers under 20 to zero.

He said the AA supported the move, but said the law should not "demonise" young people who were found to have trace amounts of alcohol under the current youth limit of 30mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

He gave the example of a youth who had some drinks on a Saturday night, stayed the night with a friend, and was found with trace amounts of alcohol on their breath driving home the following day.

"We don't want them to be done for drink driving ... They did the right thing, they didn't drive the night before."

Mr Noon also supported the proposal to install interlock devices in the cars of people convicted for serious drink driving offences, to stop them driving over the limit.

But he opposed a three month stand-down before the interlock was fitted.

"Our concern is it puts everybody else at risk on the roads, because we know through international research that these drivers are likely to try and offend again, and the best option possible is to affix the interlock as soon as possible."

Drivers with an interlock fitted should be banned from driving any other vehicle, and impoundment of vehicles should be considered for breaches, Mr Noon said.

Interlocks should be made mandatory for three or more repeat offences.

- NZPA