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Waikato road policing manager Leo Tooman remembers the bad old days in the 1960s when it was "quite acceptable" to drink four jugs of beer before jumping in the car and heading home after a day's work.
"Guys would rush into the pub at 5.10pm and order a couple of jugs ... No one had time to sit down so people would stand around these lean-ons and power-drink," said Mr Tooman.
"When it got to 5.45pm the barman would call time and people would go and grab another two jugs each - that's four jugs in 50 minutes - before they'd drive home to their families. It seems pretty ridiculous, but that was just what everyone did in those times."
Mr Tooman, who joined the Ministry of Transport as a young traffic officer in 1965, remembers when the six o'clock swill was banished in 1967 - the same year breath-testing was introduced. The breath-testing prototypes were brought in to combat the country's road toll, which that year hit 570, or nearly 21 deaths per 100,000 people.
Whereas booze buses these days can process drink-drivers in about 20 minutes, back then it could often be a lengthy and sometimes tricky procedure.
Those suspected of driving under the influence were asked to blow into a tube with yellow crystals that would turn green when a person had excess breath alcohol. The traffic officer would then have to wait 20 minutes before performing the same test again to confirm.
If the second test was positive the motorist was taken back to the station where a local doctor would perform intoxication and blood tests.
The entire process could sometimes take up to 90 minutes.
"We would often drive them [drunks] back to the station in their cars and leave our motorbikes on the side of the road and pick them up in the morning," Mr Tooman said.
"Sometimes we'd even put the drunk on the back of our motorbikes ... Everyone in those days called us 'sir'."
New Zealand suffered its worst road toll ever in 1973, when a staggering 843 people were killed in car accidents - about 16 a week.
"There was a drink-drive culture back in the 1970s which was of course horrendous," said Mr Tooman. "You must also remember that it wasn't mandatory to wear seatbelts until 1975."
But fast forward to the present day and the country is on course for its lowest road toll in 50 years.
As of yesterday, there were 354 road fatalities. At the same time last year 423 people had been killed on the roads.
Mr Tooman credits vehicle and road engineering improvements, multi-agency co-operation, air ambulances and the higher cost of petrol earlier this year among the factors that have seen the road toll fall so dramatically.
Had changes not been made, he believes the road toll would these days be "about 2000".
He now worries that with fuel prices coming down "we could see the road toll go up again - it happened in the 1970s".
Mr Tooman said the highway patrol and its co-operating agencies had a road toll target of 300 deaths by 2010.
This would likely remain a challenge, he said, as "completely avoidable" fatal accidents involving alcohol or speed still make up two-thirds of all crashes.
"We've been pushing the drink-drive message for God knows how long but 28 per cent of all road fatalities in the region still involve alcohol.
"When you hit a tree or a lamp-post doing 120km/h you will most probably die, but if you're doing 90 you have a good chance of living."
There will be no let-up from police and highway patrol officers this summer, Mr Tooman promises, particularly after a recent booze bus operation in Hamilton and the Bay of Plenty netted a 65-year-old woman with a reading of 918mcg, more than twice the adult limit. In the same blitz, two 16-year-olds were caught driving five times over the legal youth limit.
From Christmas Eve, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Central Districts highway patrol staff have been taking to the air in four-seater planes to monitor motorists.
