Drunken driver had small children in car

A woman has been caught driving at three times the legal alcohol limit - with a 6-month-old baby and 7-year-old child in the car.

The woman's licence was suspended for 28 days when she returned an alcohol level of 1258 micrograms per litre of breath. The legal limit is 400 mcg/litre.

The car was seen weaving across State Highway 1 towards Kaitaia by an off-duty police constable at 5pm on Saturday.

He feared a head-on collision and followed the car, said Senior Sergeant Gordon Gunn of the Kaitaia police.

The car was stopped at a McDonald's drive-through and the 31-year-old driver was breath-tested.

Mr Gunn said the children were taken away by family members and he expected Child Youth and Family had been notified.

"We advise CYF as a matter of course when we have concerns about children.

"Certainly people putting kids at risk, something like that warrants a notification."

Mr Gunn said cases of people driving drunk with children in the car "unfortunately happens all too frequently up here".

The children and other road users were potentially at risk, he said.

"Fortunately there were no tragic consequences but it certainly had all the hallmarks of being a recipe for disaster."

The woman is due to appear in court this month.

She was among 40 drivers caught by police in a drink-driving sting in Northland last weekend.

An alcohol level of 1064 micrograms per litre of breath was recorded by a 17-year-old man, nearly 10 times the legal limit of 150 mcg/litre for his age group.

Police said eight of the drink-drivers were recidivist offenders.