Matt Lowrie: Greater Auckland transport blog director on the Government's new $1.3 billion programme to crack down on dangerous driving

One commentator says enforcement is critical for road safety.

The Government's announced it wants 3.3 million roadside alcohol breath tests a year, with a $1.3 billion budget over three years.

$7 million is for incentives for police - for when they meet targets.

Greater Auckland transport blog director Matt Lowrie says police haven't done enough breath tests for a long time.

"It's only in the last year that they've actually started doing it - the numbers that they kind of need to do to be able to get that down. And what we've actually seen is that in the last 18 months, the number of deaths on the road has finally started coming down again."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Keller du for see Ala Transport Minister Simeon Brown has
announced another crackdown. This is a crackdown on drink and
drugs drivers. He's given police a series of targets to
hit when it comes to road policing, including a target
of three point three million breath tests.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
If the cops don't hit these targets, they're not going
to get as much funding here as what he said
to Mike Costing this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
We know that alcohol breath tests have an impact untiss
a differing alcohol or drunk drivers on our roads, and
so it's really important that we have clear targets and
we see them meeting those targets on a regular basis
to keep New Zealanders safe on the road.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Now, Matt Lowry is the director of the Great Auckland
Transport Bloggin is with us. Now, Hey, Matt, hi man,
I know you don't like targets for the sake of targets,
but he's got a point.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Isn't it like if you see a.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Lot of cop cars out there pulling you over, you're
less likely to get behind the wheel when you're under
the influence, aren't you.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Oh? I think enforcement is absolutely critical for road safety
in New Zealand, and I think it's important that the
police do have targets, or what I guess I'm concerned
about is that we're saying that we have to I
think breath testing targets is a good thing. But when
we police are saying, when we're saying to the police
they have to find a certain number of people a
year for speeding or what have you, that that press
potential issues and potentially bad headlines for the police in

(01:09):
the future and down the road when people think that
they're being targeted unfairly. I don't think it's necessarily the case.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, whats going like, do they have not a number
of speeding tickets?

Speaker 4 (01:20):
Yeah, so that part of the rules is that they
have to issue a certain number of speeding tickets a
year and various other offenses as well. And it to
be clear, to be honest, I think that is a
good thing. We need to target road safety much more effectively.
And what we saw and what we've seen in the
past is particularly instead of the mid tens twenty ish

(01:41):
roads safety actually got worse in many cases, and a
lot of that was because enforcement dropped.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, how do you feel about withholding that seventy three
million bucks until the target of the brief testing is hit.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Well, they're sort of a case of the floggings will
continue until morale improved situation where you've got if we've
got these, I guess if they don't meet the targets,
then the funding will be cut, which will make it
harder than to meet the targets in the future. And
so it seems a bit of a weird incentive to
in place for police to threaten their funding to be

(02:12):
able to plan long too to meet these targets.

Speaker 5 (02:15):
Can you explain something to me, because the reason that
doing this is because the NZTA, which basically pays for
the breath test, is so frustrated that the police never
do enough breath tests.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Why don't throps do enough breath tests?

Speaker 4 (02:26):
I mean, that's a good question for them, that they
haven't done enough, and they haven't done enough for a
long time. It's only the last year really that they've
actually started doing it the numbers that they kind of
need to do and then to achieve to be able
to get that down. And what we've actually seen is
in the last year or eighteen months that the number
of deaths on have finally started coming down again.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Listen. Thank you very much Matt for talking us through.
I appreciate it. It's Matt Lowry, Greater Auckland Director.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
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