Three strikes rule for drink-drivers

Drink-drivers will face a new "three strikes and you're out" law from Monday, when their cars will be taken from them for a third offence within four years.

Their cars will automatically be taken from them for 28 days until they pay all costs.

Even then, they will be unlikely to be back in their cars in a hurry, with a long driving ban likely at that point, Land Transport New Zealand (LTNZ) spokesman Andy Knackstedt said.

"Effectively it's recognising that we've got a problem with repeat drink-drivers and is putting new penalties and new steps to address that," he said.

Ministry of Transport figures show that in 2004, drink-driving contributed to 133 deaths, 497 serious injuries and 1401 minor injuries on the roads, and figured in 30 per cent of all road crashes.

They also show that in 2000, 1030 of the people convicted for drink-driving - out of a total of 21,601 that year - had three or more drink-driving convictions in the previous five years.

New Zealand's worst drink-driver had 26 convictions.

Under the new law, for a first offence, the measures available to police are unchanged, with a court-imposed penalty the only option.

But for a second offence, police can now impose an immediate licence suspension at the roadside, and for a third, the offender's vehicle is immediately impounded for 28 days.

In addition, they will then receive an automatic suspension of at least a year and then have to re-sit their driving test.

All new penalties are in addition to the old court-imposed penalties.

If drivers have not paid all costs and retrieved their vehicles at the end of the 28 day period, the vehicles can be sold 10 days later.

Mr Knackstedt hoped the new measures would reduce repeat drink-driving.

"Police are quite keen on having another tool in their toolbox and it recognises that the vast majority of New Zealanders just don't accept this sort of behaviour and they want something to be done about people who have a complete disregard for the safety of others on the road," he said.

He agreed the penalty could be stricter than 28 days' impoundment but 28 days was what Parliament had agreed to.

Under the new law, repeat drink-drivers also face harsher penalties at lower blood alcohol levels than first-time offenders.

- NZPA