One More For The Road?

Over the Christmas/New Year period, Lower Hutt Police, Hutt Valley Health and Hutt City Council are teaming up to crack down on drink driving in the city.

The Police, Hutt City Council and Hutt Valley Health are issuing a direct challenge to Hutt City’s drivers – ‘Make this holiday period the safest one ever on our roads.’

“We’re not saying don’t drink, we’re saying if you’re going to drink, then don’t drive. It doesn’t take much to phone a taxi or arrange to stay over at someone’s place,” said Tony Yung, Hutt City Road Safety Coordinator.

Campaign initiatives include radio, newspaper and billboard advertising, flyers and posters emphasising the penalties of drink driving, targeted compulsory breath testing, random breath testing by the Police and enforcement visits on selected licensed premises around Hutt City.

On the nights of the 19th and 20th of December, select bars and restaurants in Hutt City may be visited by a troupe of singers promoting the drive sober message and distributing giveaways.

“The message we want to get out there is: Having one more for the road? Then make it a latte and don’t become just another road toll statistic,” said Tony Yung.

Over the 2001/2002 Christmas holiday period, 21 people died on the roads, the year before that it was 20 and the year before that it was 17 unnecessary deaths. (Official holiday period is between 4pm 24 December to 6am 3rd January)

22 per cent, or just over one in five, of all reported crashes in the last holiday period involved alcohol as a contributing factor.

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