KEY POINTS:
Almost one in 10 taxis stopped during a weekend drink-drive blitz in Auckland had to be taken off the road because of serious defects, a statistic police today described as alarming.
Senior Sergeant Pete Kaveney said police applauded those members of the public who had been drinking and who did the right thing by being driven home in a taxi or by someone else who was sober.
But he said some taxi operators were showing a complete disregard for the safety of the people they were carrying.
About a third of 7729 vehicles stopped during the anti-drink-drive campaign targeting major roads into central Auckland were commercial vehicles.
Of those, Land Transport New Zealand inspectors conducted minor visual examinations of 573 taxis.
A total of 289, or roughly half, failed to comply with regulations because of minor defects.
"But alarmingly, 52 were written off the road for serious safety defects," Mr Kaveney said.
He said passengers were entitled to know that they were travelling in a vehicle that was safe.
"When you get into a taxi, you enter into a contract to get somewhere, and get somewhere safely," he said.
"When you have taxis that have the steel belts of their tyres showing through the tread, that's a complete disregard for the safety of the passengers."
Mr Kaveney said police would continue to have checkpoints and warned that people ignoring the safety message would be caught.
- NZPA
