ROADSIDE DRUG-TEST TRIALS FOR SUSPECT DRIVERS

Drivers may face roadside testing that can determine whether they are under
the influence of drugs such as speed, Ecstasy and cannabis.

The tests, used by the Californian Highway Patrol in the United States and
by police in Australia, are to be used in conjunction with drink-drive
testing and could be introduced within months.

The national road policing manager, Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, said
he believed people were now also driving under the influence of drugs such
as speed and Ecstasy as well as cannabis.

"If we are trying to reduce road trauma, we can't ignore something that is
staring us in the face."

The issue was raised in Whangarei last month during a coroner's inquest,
when a Northland police crash expert backed suggestions that motorists be
tested for cannabis use.

Coroner Peter Mahood said Clive Ian Reid, 42, of Kumeu, and Regina Ereti
Walker, 63, of Wellsford, died in a head-on collision near Waipu on January
5 after Mr Reid tried to overtake another vehicle.

A blood test revealed Mr Reid had used cannabis, but it could not be
established if that had contributed to the accident.

Mrs Walker's husband, Ron, said there was no doubt in his mind that
cannabis had contributed.

"The road is so straight you could drive an aeroplane down there and not
hit anything.

"The last thing she said to me before she left for Whangarei was that my
dinner was in the fridge and all I had to do was put it in the oven. It was
the last time I saw her alive.

"At night I find it pretty difficult to stop thinking about her ... It's
the way she died that's upsetting. We were married for 41 years."

The Government needed to develop a test for cannabis use, he said.

Mr Fitzgerald sent two police officers to Australia last month to
investigate how the drug tests could work in New Zealand.

One of the two, Senior Sergeant Bruce Lyon of Waikato, said a law change
was needed before the Australian tests could be effective here.

Under present legislation, a driver could be charged with driving with
excess breath-or blood-alcohol or driving while incapable of having proper
control of a motor vehicle.

There was no proof that drugs such as cannabis left a driver "incapable" of
proper control of a vehicle, he said.

In Victoria, police had the option of another charge - driving while
impaired, but not necessarily incapable, by any drug.

"If you are thought to be under the influence of alcohol they will do that
test.

"If it comes back negative, they can switch into this driving while
impaired legislation, which enables them to carry out almost a doctor's
equivalent to a clinical examination."

"It probably will stack up here, but it will take time."

Nearly 28 per cent of all fatal road accidents in the Waikato involved
drugs, Mr Lyon said. Research carried out more than five years ago revealed
that 39.9 per cent of Northland drivers killed in accidents had cannabis in
their blood.