KEY POINTS:
Gordon Armstrong, the repeat drink-driver who killed three motorcyclists near Rotorua on April 29, was "significantly" over the legal alcohol limit when he crashed.
Police yesterday revealed that Armstrong, 53, had a blood-alcohol level 12mg higher than the limit of 80mg per 100ml of blood, but said his actual reading was likely to have been much higher.
A blood sample was taken from Armstrong four hours after his car crossed the centre line and ploughed into motorcyclists Simon Short, Toni Dommerholt-Purchase and Leon Mason.
Senior Sergeant Ed Van Den Broek of Rotorua said the time lapse, the result of emergency medical treatment Armstrong received at the scene, as well as replacement blood fluids he was given, would have diluted the sample.
Police now believe Armstrong had drunk through the night and was still drinking in the daylight hours before he left Putaruru at 11am and hit the motorcyclists about an hour later on State Highway 33.
His 5-year-old son and two grand-daughters, aged 7 and 8, were with him in the car when it crashed and were injured. Armstrong died a day after the collision.
Mr Van Den Broek said it was impossible to estimate Armstrong's true blood-alcohol level, but the fact he was over the limit four hours later and his erratic driving suggested it was "significantly higher".
The families of Armstrong's victims reacted with horror to the blood results.
"My family, friends and I can never forgive or forget the devastation and the horror caused at the hands of this man," said Mr Mason's widow, Jos.
She said it was obvious Armstrong did not care for himself, his family or "three strangers enjoying a Sunday morning ride", and she criticised his family's "irresponsibility" in allowing him to drive.
"We would be horrified to think that the family, knowing his history, knew he had been drinking, with their children in the car."
She thanked emergency workers and other motorists who stopped to help her husband and his friends, but said she and her family did not support the police proposal to lower driver alcohol limits.
"It won't make a blind bit of difference because these drunk drivers, they're a different breed. They don't care, they're going to drink anyway ... We believe there should be zero tolerance and harsher penalties and deterrents put in place."
Mrs Mason is setting up a website dedicated to her husband and hopes to have it online by the end of next week. The site will begin with tributes but will be used to campaign against drink-driving, she said.
Armstrong's family did not wish to comment on his blood-alcohol results or the claim that they had been irresponsible.
