Drink driving rate well down

Stuff reports:

The number of breath-tests done by police has rocketed in the past six years.

Figures provided to The Dominion Post show that the number of breath tests increased steadily from 1,713,438 in 2008 to 3,027,347 last year.

The figures suggest that a substantial drop in the number of drink-driving convictions over the same period can be attributed to a reduction in motorists choosing to drink and drive, rather than to any drop in police resourcing.

Last week it was revealed that the number of convictions for driving with excess breath alcohol, excess blood alcohol or refusing to provide a sample had dropped from 30,976 in 2009 to 23,024 last year.

They don’t use the same base year but if we assume 2008 and 2009 are the same, then the number of tests is up 77% and the number of convictions are down 26%. The conviction rate has gone from one in 55 people tested to one in 131. That’s an excellent trend.

Perhaps it is an indication that we can shift some resources from breath tests, to other areas?