As part of its annual campaign the Safe Summer Coromandel initiative will focus on preventing harm caused by alcohol.

The police-led multiagency initiative involves more than 15 community organisations and groups working together to prevent death and serious harm over the summer in the Coromandel region.

Reducing and preventing the harm caused by alcohol will be the focus of the Safe Summer Coromandel initiative's campaign this holiday season. Photo: File

An evaluation report on the initiative released earlier this year showed a significant decline in drink driving offences, sexual assaults and public order offences during the 2014/15 summer.

But it also showed a substantial spike in emergency department presentations on both Christmas and New Year's days due to both a busier summer and the impact of alcohol.

'The increase in 2014/2015 could possibly be attributed to the increased number of visitors,” says the report.

'An analysis of statistics provided by the Waikato District Health Board, and anecdotal evidence from those working in the emergency department over this period, confirm there was a spike in alcohol-related injuries over the New Year period.”

As a result of the evaluation, the campaign will focus on the influence of alcohol after the initiative established it to be the common factor in most injuries and death.

The initiative was created by senior sergeant Graham Shields following the deaths of 13 people on the Coromandel during the peak of the 2010/2011 summer.

That New Year's Eve, 40 people were arrested and another 240 were treated for alcohol and drug related issues by St John, with five of those needing to be airlifted to hospital by helicopter.

By 5am, Graham was in the back of an ambulance holding a towel against a hole in the neck of a 23-year-old man who had been stabbed after trying to stop a domestic assault in Whitianga.

'Towns like Whangamata and Whitianga attract more summer holiday-makers than anywhere else in New Zealand,” says Graham. 'The Coromandel Peninsula sold a million nights of accommodation in the summer of 2013. But people let their guard down when they're on holiday.

'The problem was unique. Nowhere else had that kind of holiday death toll. I thought to myself ‘next year there are going to be some changes because this can't be allowed to continue'.”

In June of this year the project was recognised at the New Zealand Police Problem Solving Awards for Best Partnership category and took out the overall Best Problem Solving Project.

The initiative's partner groups include: NZ Police, Thames-Coromandel District Council, CAPS Hauraki, ACC, Health Promotion Agency, Waikato DHB, Community Mental Health, Surf Life Saving NZ, Waikato Regional Council, Maritime NZ, Coast Guard, NZ Fire Service, NZ Rural Fire Service, St Joh and Land SAR NZ.

For more information visit Safe Summer Coromandel's Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/safesummercoromandel/