Media Release: 2 October 2012

Anti drink-driving programme achieves remarkable results

The AA Research Foundation is urging the Government to take note of the outstanding results of the Drive Soba Programme to stop drink drivers reoffending.

Of the 292 repeat drink drivers who completed the Northland programme between 2007-2011, just 18 had been caught drink driving again as at June 2012. This equates to a re-offending rate of 6%.

On average 27% of those caught drink driving reoffend, so to have a rate of just 1 in 16 people among those that completed the programme is a significant achievement.

“Getting repeat drink drivers to change their ways is crucial to making our roads safer,” says AA Motoring Affairs General Manager Mike Noon.

“Rehabilitation treatment is a key part of doing this and the results of the Drive Soba Programme shows how much better we can do at putting an end to drink driving.”

The results come from 37 Drive Soba Programmes run from June 2007 to December 2011. The programme involves 13 sessions, 12 in a group setting and one individual session. In total, 462 repeat drink drivers have been allocated to the programme over the last five years and 63% have completed it.

The programme recognises that changing the behaviour of many drink drivers requires more than simply disqualifying them from driving and seeks to address a wide-range of areas that are all connected in reducing re-offending. It combines cognitive-behavioural techniques, alcohol education, motivational interviewing and relapse prevention.

In 2011 there were close to 32,000 drink drivers caught in New Zealand and about 6000 of them were on their third or more offence. Alcohol is a factor in about 500 serious or fatal crashes each year.

“What we are doing with a lot of drink drivers right now ends up being catch-and-release,” says Mr Noon.

“A lot of the worst offenders are people with serious alcohol issues and if we are serious about stopping drink driving we need to be looking at more programmes like Drive Soba.

“We’ve just seen the introduction of alcohol interlocks as a sentencing option and a trial of an alcohol and drug court is about to begin, but more rehabilitation and treatment is the other piece of the puzzle needed to get drunk drivers off our roads for good.”

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