The use of breath testing by Police in the Coromandel Police District was upscaled yesterday with over a 900 breath tests completed at 28 different checkpoints with five drivers processed for excess breath alcohol.

“Yesterday’s hard work and high number of checks are a credit to our dedicated road policing teams within the area who are out patrolling roads every day and are all focused on prevention and enforcement,” says Inspector Mike Henwood, Area Commander, Eastern Waikato.

“We work hard alongside our road safety partners to prevent deaths and serious injuries from happening on our roads and will continue to do so over the holiday period. We got five intoxicated drivers yesterday and that's five too many.

We are all too familiar with the devastating results drink driving can cause and any death on the road is one too many,” says Inspector Henwood.

It’s not just breath and drug tests we are conducting, we are looking out for poor driving behaviours, and we need all road users to share the responsibility of safety whenever and wherever you are travelling.

Here are some things to remember:

RESTRAINTS are important: make sure everyone is wearing the correct seat belts, including child restraints

DISTRACTIONS cause crashes: focus on the road always (don’t be distracted by your phone or anything else)

SPEED is a no-no: drive at safe speeds for the conditions, and below the posted speed limit

Coming into the holiday season and New Year it is doubly important that locals and holiday makers alike know that they could be breath tested anytime and anywhere so that everyone can get home safely.”

Drivers can expect to see our staff at any time to deter drivers of any dangerous behaviours including driving impaired.

We want every road user to get to their destination safely and enjoy their holiday break, which is why Police will be focusing on these dangerous driving behaviours.

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