drunk driving

This is nothing short of child abuse:

A mother nearly three times over the drink-driving limit had her two young children strapped in the back seat of her car when she drifted to the wrong side of the road and hit an oncoming car, a court has been told.

“The oncoming drivers must have been scared witless, let alone the effect on your children,” Judge Michael Crosbie told solo mother Joanne Tracy Oates, 41, of Outram.

Oates appeared in Dunedin District Court yesterday and admitted driving with a breath-alcohol level of 1170mcg, dangerous driving and failing to stop after an accident.

Prosecutor Sergeant Paul Knox said Oates was at home with her children, aged 3 and 5, on January 16 when she decided to go for a drive after drinking throughout the day.

About 4.50pm, driving her Isuzu Bighorn on State Highway 87 with her children secure in the rear seat, Oates was weaving as she travelled about 90kmh.

Oates drifted on to the wrong side of the road, forcing three oncoming cars to move as far left as possible to avoid impact.

Her car hit the driver’s side of the second vehicle, sending it spinning.

Oates did not stop and continued driving, followed by a member of the public who gave directions to police.

When she was stopped in Mosgiel, Oates was extremely intoxicated, slurring her speech and unsteady on her feet.

No one was injured in the crash but Oates’ vehicle, and the vehicle she struck both had extensive damage.

Oates was initially abusive and blamed the crash on the other driver.

Following on from my post about the stupid person walking on the motorway is evidence from Freakonomics to suggest that drunk walkers are more of a problem than drunk drivers:

In 2009, the most recent year for which we have data, about 34,000 people died in traffic accidents. Roughly half of them were drivers — 41 percent of whom were drunk. There were more than 4,000 pedestrians killed — and 35 percent of them were drunk. Of course, a drunk walker can’t hurt or kill someone else the way a drunk driver can, and people drive drunk much farther distances than they’d walk drunk. But the danger is hardly insignificant, says trauma surgeon Thomas Esposito.

I’d love to know that the stats are for here.

Phil Goff really has become quite forgetful. He forgot he had a briefing with the SIS about Israeli tourists, and as late as last night was still making a big deal over it despite the documentary evidence to the contrary.

Yesterday he was making big waves about his time as Defence Minister and saying how terrible things never happened on his watch. Of course that wasn’t true, Phil forgot about the Army Colonel who scammed large quantities of booze and the 6 soldiers in Afghanistan charged with drug dealing.

He has also forgotten about the case of the young naval rating killed in a drunk driving incident near Devonport naval Base.

A young sailor was killed in a car crash near the Devonport naval base at the weekend despite a Navy campaign against drink-driving.

Jasmine Annie Bastion was sitting in the back seat of the Mazda RX7 when it slammed into a concrete wall on Queens Parade early on Saturday.

The 23-year-old, an able chef, died in hospital later that day.

Three young men were cut out of the wreck with minor injuries.

Police say the people in the vehicle had been drinking at a local bar.

It is not known if the 19-year-old driver had also been drinking. Police are awaiting the results of tests on a blood alcohol sample.

The Devonport base has its own bar and Lieutenant Commander Barbara Cassin said the Navy had many action plans in place to convince personnel about the dangers of drink-driving.

Phil Goff was the Minister during this incident. I wonder of he got briefed? I wonder of I have to OIA those minutes to prove he got briefed on that too.

When is Phil Goff going to start remembering simple things instead of grandstanding in desperate bids for relevance?

With a memory as porous as Phil seems to have can we really trust him in the big job, let alone to lead the Opposition.

I think for once the government has got it right on drink driving.

They have announced today that there is to be a zero alcohol limit for driver under 20 and for repeat offenders of drink driving.

Government changes creating a zero drink-drive limit for under 20 and recidivist drink drivers found widespread support this afternoon, but both the Labour Party and an alcohol watchdog say the moves don’t go far enough.

Transport Minister Steven Joyce today announced a zero drink drive limit for recidivist drink drivers and drivers aged under 20 from early next year.

It will be imposed on drivers after their second drink driving conviction and is likely to last three years after their disqualification period ends.

But the Government didn’t lower the legal adult blood-alcohol limit from 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood to 50 milligrams.

Mr Joyce said that the Government will first do some New Zealand-specific research on the level of risk posed by drivers with a blood alcohol limit between 0.05 and 0.08.

I think they have got the balance right here. I’m not convinced on the general limit being lowered, but then I don’t drink and drive at all. If I am driving then i don’t touch a drop. Having a zero limit for recidivists is a brilliant move, though i suspect the drunks will still roll out thinking they can run the gauntlet…they have already proven their mental incapacity by driving drunk in the first place.

It seems that the public agree with the changes as well, especially for under 20 drivers. The Herald poll that goes with the story shows that 91% of respondents agree with the government. Labour of course disagrees, like the idiots they are.

But Labour said the Government had attempted to kick the issue of drink driving into touch by postponing a decision.

Labour’s transport safety spokeswoman Darien Fenton said the Government had failed to act decisively over the issue.

“Anything that will save lives on our roads is worth doing,” he said.

Darien Fenton is a miserable wench. She has a perpetual smack bum look about her that even the most talented photoshopper would have trouble fixing. Glad to see she is advocating the removal of all vehicles from the road, I hope Labour takes that position into the election, after all having no vehicles would definitely save lives and Darien Fenton thinks that is worth doing.

In other road related matters I had an email from an expert in roading matters who suggested, in relation to doddery old fools driving the wrong way down motorways, that the matter could be solved easily.

Surely the way would be to ban all traffic on motorways unless it is travelling on the wrong side.

This would deal with the difficulties 83 year old unlicenced drivers have, and would also allow us to import left hand drive cars to capitalise on the change.

In one quick move we could legalise Chevy Suburbans and Cadillac Escalades to allow more greens to be carried in one vehicle.

Then we could be like Samoa.

The boy-racers have turned out to be chickens in the face of the law designed to crush their cars for repeat offenders. now the son of a mother who just yesterday became a victim of drunk driving says crush drunk drivers cars.

The oldest son of a mother-of-five killed by a woman fleeing a police check point says it’s time to crush drink-drivers’ cars.

Bradley Phillips said last night he was frustrated by the Government’s eagerness to crush boy racers’ vehicles, while letting drink-drivers keep theirs.

His mother, Penelope Rae Phillips, 52, died in Blenheim on Friday night after a 20-year-old woman smashed into her car.

The woman had been stopped at a police checkpoint 400m away. Police said she blew a positive result then sped away.

Officers scrambled to pursue, but the woman struck the white Nissan Penelope Phillips was driving. She died at the scene.

An innocent driver killed by a drunk skank and the skank survives. I feel for the son.

I read this story yesterday after I saw the headline on the Herald site that really rates as spam journalism. The headline read “Woman dies as driver flees police” giving the impression that the woman was involved in a police pursuit when nothing of the sort happened.

Just today we also hear that;

One of New Zealand’s worst repeat drink-drivers has been caught again, racking up his 40th driving conviction – 14 of them for drink-driving.

Richard Steven Rowe, 46, of the Bay of Plenty, is in custody awaiting sentencing in April for his latest drink-driving conviction. He faces up to two years’ jail and disqualification from driving for more than a year.

How many chances does one get? Looks like more than 14 or so. Crush their cars. This is the result of another vagary of our justice system, never being allowed to know what prior convictions a fool has already. Crush their cars.