Sergeant Ray Wylie of the Eastern Bay of Plenty road policing group is disappointed at the high number of drivers processed for drink driving during the weekend after 19 drivers were treated for drunk driving.

Photo: file.

Eastern Bay of Plenty Police, supported by Western Bay of Plenty and Rotorua Police held a campaign targeting drunk and impaired drivers on Friday and Saturday evening.

As a result, 16 drivers were processed for drink driving during the two nights; another three drivers were processed pursuant to ‘under 20' drink drive legislation and were issued with infringement notices. The legal limit for a driver or rider of a motor vehicle under age 20 is zero.

The highest breath sample obtained was 1012 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath. The legal limit for a person 20 years and over is 400 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.

A total of 1474 vehicles were stopped and drivers' breath tested, nine vehicles were impounded and 95 infringement notices were issued.

Sergeant Ray says EBOP has constantly been overly represented in the number of road deaths involving alcohol. 'This is nothing we should be proud of.

'On each occasion that a driver gets behind the wheel while intoxicated, it significantly increases the chances of a crash, on each occasion this is a potential road death waiting to happen.”

The operation was run in combination with the 'Make it to Monday" Queen's Birthday Weekend operation.

Prior to the official holiday weekend period, police attended two crashes on Wainui Road on Friday, with both crashes occurred during periods of wet weather, says Sergeant Ray. 'Despite many previous warnings drivers are still failing to slow down and to drive to the conditions.”

Members of the public should contact police immediately on 111 or *555 about incidents of bad driving.

'These incidents often involve drunk, dangerous or fatigued drivers, and we need to know about them sooner rather than later so we can intervene effectively.”