Grieving families want drinking age law changed

Michelle Toko's children Monika, 11, and Mohi, 15, lost a much-loved older sister. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Two Auckland families say that if the legal age for buying alcohol had remained at 20 they may have been spared the devastation of losing loved ones.

"It's hard to say because you are always going to have idiots out there," said bereaved mother Michelle Toko. "If it was a 20-year-old having to buy it, maybe they have a bit more maturity than an 18-year-old."

Ms Toko lost a daughter and Laurie Ah Kiau a brother in the 2003 car crash that earned David Stanley Time an 8-year jail sentence.

Aged 18 at the time, and with nearly five times the legal blood alcohol level for drivers under 20, Time tried to overtake a ute in Mt Roskill at 131 km/h but instead slammed into it.

Joseph Ah Kiau, 33, and his partner, Amber Baddock, 21, who were in the ute, and Time's brother, Faafetai, 17, were killed.

Laurie Ah Kiau, an engineering worker, said this week that if the legal age had stayed at 20 his brother might still be alive.

Ms Toko, a psychiatric nurse, said Amber's death had scarred her family.

"We're still struggling to get on with it because life goes on and you have to keep functioning, for my children. It never gets easier ... "

Amber's headstone was unveiled at her family marae, near Whangarei, at Christmas.

Mr Ah Kiau, whose brother had a daughter, now aged 8, said of his death: "It's been hard for everybody, especially mum and dad. You think about it every day. We are always talking about it."