Number of drunken teenage drivers soars

The number of drunk teenagers getting behind the wheel of a car in Western Bay of Plenty has soared since the drinking age was lowered five years ago.

And the offenders are getting younger, according to police figures.

They show that 41 youngsters aged 15 and 16 were picked up for drink-driving last year - nearly three times as many as in the late 1990s when the legal drinking age was 20.

Already this year, 11 young people of the same age have been caught drink-driving. Most of those caught exceeded the adult alcohol limit of 400mcg per litre of breath.

The highest reading last year was 985mcg - more than six times the limit for those aged under 20, which is 150mcg.

Sergeant Nga Utanga, head of youth services for the Western Bay of Plenty police, said: "People can look at the statistics and make their own minds up.

"It's only one indicator, but put it alongside everything else that's happening with young people and alcohol ... unruly parties, binge drinking.

"It's too many in our community. We didn't used to have the rates. Now we do. Something's changed."

Mr Utanga said that most teenagers who were questioned about their drinking said they had obtained the alcohol from home.

"Parents really need to look at their responsibilities in terms of that. If they have a few beers under supervision that's the parents' call, not the state's call. But when it's beyond the realms of that responsibility it becomes our call."

Alcohol continued to be the "number one substance" used by young people in the Western Bay and was a contributing factor in many of the crimes committed at night, he said.

Drug educator Pat Buckley, who works with schools throughout the Western Bay, said some agencies were seeing children as young as 10 with drinking problems.

"Alcohol is a huge problem. It's under-rated, probably because it's a legal drug," he said.

"Now Government realises what a mistake it has made in lowering the drinking age."

Parents often bought teenagers alcohol and then left them unsupervised.

Mr Buckley attributed New Zealand's immoderate attitude towards drinking to a "six o'clock swill" mentality, dating back to pre-1967 when bars had to close at 6pm.

"I believe the mindset has been transferred to our young people today. You don't give something to someone who doesn't have the maturity to deal with it," he said.

"In Europe they give alcohol to children with their meals, but it is in the context of family and socialising. It is done in a supervised and healthy way. Here the kids drink as much as they can as fast as they can."

Community Alcohol and Drug Service youth educator and counsellor Robyn Dixon said it was not unusual for her to be working with 13 and 14-year-olds who regularly drank alcohol to excess.

Spirits were a popular choice, as opposed to beer and wine, because it gave them a quicker "hit".

Many were drinking to the point of being sick and passing out.

Te Puke High principal Barry Foster said that, while it was easy to highlight drug abuse, drinking was in many ways a greater problem.

"It causes huge problems ... because it's socially acceptable," he said.

- NZPA