Several drunk drivers caught with children in their cars

Results from two recent police operations show the drink-driving message is still not getting through to some people, including parents who are willing to put their children's lives at risk.

North Shore police caught 42 people driving over the legal limit during a weekend anti-drink-driving operation.

Five of the drunk drivers were not only over the limit but had young children in their car.

The alarming results follow an operation in Auckland City which caught 107 drunk drivers - several of whom considered themselves to be "sober drivers" who were picking up drunk friends.

One of these drivers blew 800 on the breath reading - twice the legal limit.

North Shore Acting Inspector Gary Hill said police were disappointed at the number of drivers caught driving under the influence during the weekend.

The operation started late on Friday night and ran until 4am on Sunday by which time nearly 5500 motorists had been breath tested.

Mr Hill said 43 had excess breath alcohol, while a further 10 elected to have blood tests which will determine if they too were over the limit.

"A disturbing fact was that at least five drivers who tested positive ... had young children as passengers in their vehicles."

Also of concern was that a large number of the drink drivers were woman and seven were under the age of 20.

Automobile Association spokesman Mike Noon said it was "tragic" to hear several of the drunk drivers had young children in their cars. "I think to find yourself in that situation then you really would feel that you had made a stupendous error of judgment."

Mr Noon said it was also regrettable to see young people coming up in the statistics as there were good programmes in 450 schools around the country.

Recent AA surveys showed that the majority of people find it socially unacceptable to drink and drive these days.

Mr Noon said police could only continue their booze bus operations in the hope of catching the small percentage of people who were not getting the message.

"You have got to remember 99 per cent of us are not driving drunk," Mr Noon said.


Booze blitz

North Shore Operation Jar September 15-17:
* 5428 vehicles stopped.
* 43 drink drivers, 7 were teenagers.

Auckland City: Operation Safer Roads Sept 9-10
* 6850 vehicles stopped.
* 107 drink drivers, 26 were teens.