Drunk drivers busted during daylight hours

Morning has broken and so has your hangover. Think you can pass for sober? Think again.

Surprising new statistics show one in five drunk drivers are nabbed during the day.

Figures released to the Herald on Sunday by police show more than 5300 people were caught driving drunk between 5am and 8pm in 2005.

In total, almost 27,000 drunk drivers were apprehended last year, mostly during the peak party hours of 10pm-2am.

The biggest cohort - almost a quarter of all drunk drivers - were caught between midnight and 1am.

Inspector Dave Parsons of road policing support said while police ran fewer checkpoints in the daytime, drunk drivers could still be caught "anytime, anywhere".

"People are often critical when police carry out drink drive checkpoints at say 9am or 10am on what otherwise seems a nice, sunny day. They say it's a waste of resources. But there are people who are apprehended at those times," he said.

"That can be people who have been nightclubbing until five or six in the morning, and they might have a quick doze- off at someone's place, and then they drive home thinking they're okay and, of course, they're not."

Mr Parsons said police had noticed a trend - especially in Auckland - for more people to be picked up later in the morning, as clubs and pubs extended their opening hours.

"Where once upon a time the main drinking hours were 10pm to 2am, we're now finding it's going right through to 6, 7 or 8 in the morning."

Statistics from the Ministry of Transport show alcohol is a factor in nearly a third of road deaths.

Before the Easter holiday period began on Friday, the road toll for the year stood at 103, down from 139 at the same time last year.

In a 2005 Ministry of Transport survey on public attitudes to road safety, 16 per cent of respondents agreed there was a good chance of being stopped and breath-tested between 8am and 6pm. More than half thought there was a good chance of being stopped if driving late at night.

Those surveyed thought a major city was the most likely place to be stopped.

More than three-quarters believed breath-testing helped lower the road toll.

The number of drunk drivers caught this year is down on the same time last year, due mainly to a 40 per cent drop in the number of apprehensions in South Auckland.