DRUGGED-UP DRIVERS TO BE TARGETED IN CAMPAIGN

Waikato booze bus staff will drug test drivers at roadside checkpoints early
next month.

Booze bus staff nationwide have been learning how to spot drugged-up drivers
by physical indicators and by using roadside tests at regional training
sessions.

Two Waikato staff trained in Auckland last week along with other North
Island police. Training has started in Manawatu and will begin in Canterbury
next week.

Senior Sergeant Bruce Lyon, who did the training with Hamilton Constable
Grant Houston, said there was a lot to learn during the three-day course,
but he was now confident he could spot a person on drugs.

National police road and safety manager Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald said
police were working out instructions for staff to test motorists and hoped
testing would begin about May 10.

If police suspected motorists had taken drugs they would make them do
roadside tests including standing on one leg.

Mr Fitzgerald said if staff believed they were too impaired to drive they
would be taken to a doctor for an evidential blood test.

They would then be charged.

Under the Land Transport Act it is an offence to drive under the influence
of a drug to the extent of being "incapable of having proper control".

It is not illegal to drive with drugs in your system and the threshold to
charge people - as being incapable of driving - is still being considered.