DRUG DRIVING ON NZ ROADS TARGETED

About 4000 drunk, injured and dead drivers will be given drug tests as
part of a two-year study into drug-driving in New Zealand.

Inspector Dave Parsons of the Road Policing Support Office said the
study - the first of its kind in New Zealand - aimed to establish how
many people drove while under the influence of drugs and what impact
it had on their driving.

"It's a bit of an unknown really," he said today.

"Based on anecdotal evidence, and the way in which drugs are
increasingly involved in other crimes, we make the assumption that
these people are also driving.

"But we need to know more to be authoritative on it."

Land Transport Safety Authority statistics show that drugs were
involved in the deaths of 35 drivers between 1998 and 2002, while a
further 27 fatally injured drivers had drugs and alcohol in their system.

Meanwhile, overseas data show a 300 per cent increase in the number of
drug-related accidents in the past three years.

Blood samples from 2000 injured or fatally injured drivers will be
tested for the presence of drugs and any role they played in the accident.

Samples from a further 2000 drivers who have undergone blood testing
for drink-driving will also be analysed to see if drugs, and what
kinds, are present.

The blood samples will be analysed by Environmental Science and
Research (ESR), and will not be used for enforcement, Mr Parson said.

Another "prong" to the project will involve roadside testing of
drivers suspected of being under the influence of drugs.

Mr Parsons said beginning in June at strategic sites, old-fashioned
"impairment tests" would be used to establish whether someone was
under the influence.

"It's actually a matter of upskilling police officers in using field
impairment tests for physical coordination, hand-eye coordination,
ability to walk a straight line....

"There are probably generations of police officers who haven't had to
use that legislation because the technology is there for testing for
alcohol."

An equivalent test for drugs was probably some years away, he
said.

Those who fail the impairment tests will be take to a doctor for
medical certification.

A prosecution, using the videotaped impairment test and doctor's
evidence, will follow in court.