Sam Taylor, a once self-confessed "belligerent drunk" has turned his life around after a drink drive conviction. Photo / Supplied
Sam Taylor, a once self-confessed "belligerent drunk" has turned his life around after a drink drive conviction. Photo / Supplied
It began with beer; a few drinks after work each day in the high-paced world of après ski as a snowboard instructor following winter around the world.
It ended when he woke in a Christchurch police cell, covered in blood and vomit and not knowing why.
By then, Sam Taylor was drinking up to half a litre of vodka daily, straight from the bottle, and getting behind the wheel.
It was cheap, easy to disguise, and great for numbing the pain after a series of events, including a complex, serious trauma unravelled by therapy only in recent years.
Taylor spiralled further after his Covid-induced exit from the glamour slopes of North America.
Sam Taylor in his heyday as a snowboarding instructor, before alcohol took hold and ruined his life. Photo / Supplied
"Not only was I losing my career but I returned to a country that was going into lockdown.
"I was already in turmoil and then the world went into turmoil – so man, what a reason to drink," the 33-year-old told Open Justice.
It was November 2020 when Taylor, now working as a welder fabricator, ended up with a second drink-drive offence after walking around New Brighton in Christchurch a "belligerent drunk", who'd been spotted driving earlier.
"I had nothing to live for any more and I felt I'd lost all my friends.
"One night I got way too hammered and I was on my last legs, pretty much ready to give up on life.
"I ended up somewhere in New Brighton - my car had been parked up for hours, but I woke up the next morning in the cells, covered in blood and vomit, and didn't know what the hell had happened."
Taylor said it was rock bottom. He had four times the legal limit of alcohol in his system, and notched up his second drink-drive conviction – the first being a decade earlier as a "young and dumb" lad in Wanaka.
He said until that night in 2020 he hadn't once considered the consequences of drinking and driving.
"I didn't really ever consider anyone else. It was just me and my bottle and that's how addiction works.
Back then, Taylor fitted the profile of the driver causing serious concern on our roads: the addict.
National Road Policing Centre director Superintendent Steve Greally told Open Justice despite efforts focused on preventing alcohol-related road crashes, there was a sector of the population which remained hard to reach, and that included people with addiction problems.
Superintendent Steve Greally. Photo / John Borren, Bay of Plenty Times
Crash data compiled by Waka Kotahi (NZ Transport Agency) showed in 2020 alcohol was a factor in 90 of the 320 road deaths that year and 262 serious injuries.
"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 system he referred to was a suite of prevention measures that include a vehicle interlock device designed to stop people drinking and driving.
Interlock devices are wired into a vehicle to prevent it starting if alcohol was 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 is effective.
Taylor was among more than 11,000 New Zealanders sentenced to an Alcohol Interlock Order since laws around their use came into force in 2017.
He said while the device was not straightforward, he credited it for forcing the U-turn in his life.
"It's really confusing and you have to get used to making the right noise – you don't blow, you have to make like a humming noise."
It cost Taylor $130 a month for the servicing fee, which involved downloading data that showed if there had been any violations.
While a vehicle won't start without a clear breath test, the device could also activate spontaneously when a driver was mobile.
"If there's a violation there's another $47 fee – you learn that one fast, but I didn't.
"I wasn't in the best of head spaces when I got this – I was fresh into sobriety. The device would go off spontaneously while I was driving down the road and I wouldn't hear it and you have only a four or five-minute window to blow into it, and if you don't it will record a violation."
Sam Taylor says his life is now back on track. Photo / Supplied
Taylor is now free of the device, but will remain on a Zero Alcohol Licence before a standard driver licence can be issued after a minimum of three years.
"If someone had stopped me at a certain point I don't believe I would have been fully ready to let it go. Everyone has to let it go in their own time."
WHERE TO GET HELP • Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (available 24/7) • Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7) • Youth services: (06) 3555 906 • Youthline: 0800 376 633 • What's Up: 0800 942 8787 (11am to 11pm) • Depression helpline: 0800 111 757 (available 24/7) • Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155 • Helpline: 1737 If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111
