A weekend anti drink-drive campaign run by North Shore Police and the specialist Traffic Alcohol Group saw 58 people detected driving with excess breath alcohol. 25 people elected to have blood tests taken, which will determine whether or not they will face court proceedings.
Operation 'Jar 5' was a follow up to previous drink-drive Operations which ran late earlier this year and last year. The drink drive operations are part of an ongoing campaign to target drunk drivers on the North Shore. Senior Sergeant Rod Fraser said that Compulsory Breath Testing (CBT) Checkpoints were set up in various strategic positions throughout the North Shore area. The operation commenced on Friday night the 23rd of May at 8.00pm and concluded at 4.00am on Sunday the 25th of May. This time period was chosen to coincide with the closing times of licensed premises on the North Shore.
4814 vehicles were stopped during the operation with 13 who tested positive for excess breath alcohol being teenagers aged under 20 years. Several drivers returned breath test readings which were more than double the legal requirement of 400 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.
5 vehicles were impounded along with 10 motorist's driver's licenses that were suspended. 8 people were also arrested for various offences including dishonesty, drugs and warrants to arrest.
Senior Sergeant Fraser said that despite similar operations on the North Shore the drink-drive apprehension rate remained similar to previous years and that a concern was the fact that almost a quarter of the drivers apprehended were under the age of 20 years. This was a significant increase from the last few CBT operations ran.
North Shore Police will continue to run further CBT operations throughout the year targeting drink drivers with Senior Sergeant Fraser saying if you drink and drive there is a good chance you will be caught.
ENDS
Issued by: Senior Sergeant Rod FRASER
Tactical Coordinator- North Shore Police