More than 11,000 drink drivers have been sentenced to Alcohol Interlock Orders since the laws came into force in 2017. Photo / NZME
More than 11,000 drink drivers have been sentenced to Alcohol Interlock Orders since the laws came into force in 2017. Photo / NZME
Dylan Sexton likes to live on the edge.
The BMX rider and crewman on a deep-sea fishing trawler has paid for it in court appearances resulting from poor judgements behind the wheel of a car; the latest involving a crash that injured someone.
Not only that; he was driving a car he shouldn't have been – the one without the breath-testing device fitted after a drink-driving offence.
Sexton recently stood in court with his head hung, wearing a T-shirt with the words "Fast Life" emblazoned across its front, as a judge meted out his latest punishment.
The dice he rolled when he whipped out in his other car to buy clutch fluid for the car with the fitted device, which he claimed was damaged during a break-in, has placed him back at the bottom of the ladder he had only just started to climb.
In June last year Sexton joined thousands of others from around the country to receive an Alcohol Interlock Order (AIO) for drink-driving related offending since the legislation came into force in 2017.
Interlock devices are wired into a vehicle to prevent it starting if alcohol is detected on a driver's breath. They are an option in sentencing first-time offenders with very high alcohol level readings, and repeat drink-drivers for whom little else has made a difference.
Ministry of Justice figures from 2016/2017 to June 2021 showed a total 11,314 alcohol interlock sentences were handed out, 26 per cent of them to first-time offenders.
First-time drink drivers can be sentenced to an Alcohol Interlock Order. Photo / NZME
At Sexton's initial appearance in the Nelson District Court last June he was disqualified from driving for 28 days and made subject to a Zero Alcohol licence order. That meant he needed to stick to the rules during the minimum 12 months an interlock device was installed in his car.
While the courts dish out the sentences, Waka Kotahi (New Zealand Transport Agency) administers the programme.
Data showed at February this year, a sentenced driver might typically spend 523 days on an interlock order before applying for a Zero Alcohol Licence - in other words, drivers are on average taking longer than needed to reach that stage.
Sexton might have got his standard licence back after a minimum three years, but he is now among the relatively small league of those who re-offended while on an interlock order.
Police figures show more than 1500 such offences have been recorded since the legislation was introduced - the police recorded the number of offences committed while on an interlock order, as opposed to the number of people who committed them.
National Road Policing Centre director Superintendent Steve Greally said that was because one person might end up with more than one charge after an incident.
"There is a myriad of potential offences within an interlock [order], including subsequent drink-drive convictions or interfering with a device – that's recorded as an offence."
Just before Christmas last year, Sexton's fishing vessel returned to port and after a 5am shift helping to unload the boat, he drank three cans of bourbon and cola.
Later that day, and not having slept much, he was caught driving without the appropriate interlock device after slamming into another car which injured a passenger, while speeding through an inner-city intersection in Nelson.
He then drove off but left some critical evidence – his vehicle's number plate, which fell off and was left at the crash scene.
Sexton called the police soon after and told them he had panicked. Subsequent breath-testing showed he was over the limit. He was charged with careless driving, driving contrary to an alcohol interlock licence and driving with excess breath alcohol as an alcohol interlock licensee.
There was considerable debate during sentencing in April as to appropriate steps, and in the end Sexton was sent back to square one: a further 28-day disqualification before being able to get a new alcohol interlock device fitted, and more community work.
"You can't have any alcohol when you drive," Judge David Ruth stressed.
Looking at the regional data since interlocks were introduced in the 2016-17 financial year, Waitematā leads the board with 908 repeat drink drivers having received an order, up to the 2020-21 year.
South Auckland followed at 879 and then Canterbury at 870. Wellington was the exemplar on 128 – the region with the lowest number of repeat drink drivers to have received the order. Waiariki in the Bay of Plenty was next lowest at 267 and then Nelson/Marlborough/West Coast at 317.
The region to score the most orders in a single year since the law was introduced was South Auckland, when 301 interlock orders were issued in 2019-2020. The region to score the lowest in the first full year since the legislation came into effect was Waiariki in 2017-18.
A quarter of drink-drivers sentenced to an Alcohol Interlock Order are first offenders. Photo / 123RF
In New Zealand there are two approved providers of alcohol interlocks, and each has installers throughout the country. A device cannot be bought, it can only be leased for a monthly fee, which the sentenced driver pays. Fees are about $183 a month, or about $133 for those eligible for a government subsidy, determined by their income status.
Waka Kotahi figures show from January 2018 until December 2021, subsidies totalling more than $2.7 million have been handed out. The figure has increased year on year from the $57,268 paid out in 2018 to the $1,250,611 paid in 2021.
There was a 59.7 per cent increase in the amount of subsidies paid from 2019 to 2020
There are also installation and removal costs, also paid by the driver, and there is a catch for owners of electric and hybrid vehicles, and those with a push-button ignition. A spokesperson from one of the provider firms told Open Justice interlock devices were not designed to suit these vehicle types so the extra fiddling around needed to install a device meant higher costs.
Waka Kotahi is also the agency responsible for issuing the alcohol interlock licences. From July 2017 to January 2022 it has issued 9183 of them.
A 2014 New Zealand Automobile Association report on impaired driving in this country found a pattern of recurring, multiple problems with the interlock sentence which had led to High Court appeals. Problems included unclear or conflicting legislation, the ongoing use of existing penalties, costs to participants and the perception it was a "soft option".
National road policing manager Superintendent Steve Greally. Photo / NZME
Steve Greally told Open Justice the devices, aimed at addressing serious alcohol-related offending mostly worked well, but there was a sector of the population which would remain hard to reach, and that included people with addiction problems.
"Interlocks are just one proven measure but, like anything, there are some people who you just can't reach, whether they're before the court or subject to other prevention or intervention measures, they're very hard to reach.
"Or maybe it's just they have a particular view on life that most people don't share and these people will always find a way to get around the system."
Greally said the two main things killing people on roads here and overseas were alcohol and speed.
"We know this and it's why we have such a focus on those two behaviour types."
He acknowledged the big part alcohol played in people's lives, which was fine until someone decided - no matter what they had drunk - to get behind the wheel.
"It puts yourself, other occupants and every other road user you go near, at risk, and that's just not okay.
"We just want people to do their best and plan. If we can do that then we can avoid the statistics which in this country is way too high."
Ministry of Transport figures show in 2020, there were 139 fatal crashes on our roads, and 194 serious injury crashes. From that total, 151 people died and 261 were seriously injured where alcohol and drugs were a contributing factor in these crashes.
An MoT spokesperson told Open Justice 2021 data would likely be available later this year, because of the process required to collate and confirm the results of causes of road deaths. He said the information came from multiple agencies, including police and the Coroner, and finalisation of data often took time if investigations or inquests were ongoing.
Greally said aside from the terrible physical and emotional toll that resulted from road crashes, they were something first responders never got used to.
"It's our frontline emergency staff who have to attend these crashes who'd much rather not see people drinking and driving, but it's a big ask."
How does alcohol interlock licence programme work?
There are seven stages of the alcohol interlock licence programme to which serious drink drivers and repeat offenders are now sentenced.
Mandatory interlock sentencing applies to anyone caught driving with an alcohol level at or more than 800 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath, or more than 160 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, or who has been convicted of a drink-driving offence within five years of the sentencing offence.
The seven stages are:
1: Disqualification begins, 28 days' minimum. 2: Apply for Alcohol Interlock Licence. 3: Installation of device for a minimum of 12 months. 4: Completing and exiting the programme. 5: Zero alcohol licence issued, if driver complies. 6: Removal of device. 7: Standard licence again after a minimum three years.
