KEY POINTS:
A Christchurch couple were both booked for drink driving overnight after the wife was found to be over the limit when she collected her husband from the police station.
The couple are among 335 drivers facing prosecution for drink driving after a nationwide operation targeting drunken and drugged drivers stopped more than 52,000 vehicles.
Police National Headquarters operations manager for road policing Inspector Carey Griffiths said the blitz was the fourth nationwide operation this year and, all up, 150,000 cars had been stopped leading to 1163 drivers facing prosecution for drink-driving.
"Those figures alone indicate that for every 1000 cars we stop, approximately eight are driven by drunk drivers," Mr Griffiths said.
"These rates simply continue."
For every 100 drunk drivers or riders killed in road crashes, 55 of their passengers and 35 sober road users died with them.
"While there are always issues with some recidivists, the majority of those stopped are at lower levels and simply don't see themselves as a problem, despite being significantly more at risk of a fatal crash," Mr Griffiths said.
Most countries with better road safety records than New Zealand, including Australia and Europe, had shown significant reductions in alcohol-related crashes and fatalities when they set their levels at 50mg compared with New Zealand's 80mg.
- NZPA
