Road association calls for police to be given saliva testing kits to tackle ‘silent killer’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

More people died on New Zealand’s roads last year after collisions involving drug-drivers than drink-drivers, new research has shown.



The Automobile Association (AA) has called the statistic proof of the “silent killer” of drug-driving and said police needed to be given saliva-based testing kits.

Figures obtained by the association showed that last year 79 fatal crashes involved a driver who was impaired by drugs in their system, compared with 70 involving an intoxicated driver.

In 2016, 59 fatal crashes involved a drug-affected driver and 67 involved alcohol. The figures come from testing that is done by authorities following a fatal crash. It is thought to be the first time that drugs have overtaken alcohol.

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“These figures confirm how big a problem drugged driving is on our roads and why we have to give police saliva-based testing devices to catch impaired drivers,” said the AA’s Dylan Thomsen. “The AA has called drugged driving a silent killer on our roads for years and these latest figures confirm how prevalent drugs are in fatal crashes.”

The AA is pushing for the government to give police more tools to test and catch drugged drivers on the roads.

Excluding alcohol, the two most commonly detected individual drugs were cannabis and methamphetamine, also known as “P”, with the cases of P detection rising sharply in recent years.

“The number of drivers found to have drugs in their system is no surprise to the AA,” said Thomsen. “No one wants someone who is high driving towards their family at 100kph but right now the chances of being caught drugged driving is tiny. We have to change that.”

The current system for police to test a driver for drugs requires an officer to have strong cause to suspect drug use and then to take the driver to a police station for a “walk-and-turn” sobriety test.

Thomsen said the existing system almost needed “a driver to be sitting in the car with drugs on the seat next to them to get tested”.

However, he said saliva testing devices, which were being used in many other countries, would be much faster and allow many more potentially drug-impaired drivers to be tested. “Random roadside drug testing would send a strong message that you’re endangering yourself and others if you drive impaired, and this doesn’t just apply to alcohol.”

Such drug testing of drivers occurs in Australia, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Ireland.



