The Government has lost the bottle to take on the problem of drink driving and is making young people the scapegoat in its latest measures to tackle the country's road toll, say political and road safety groups.
However, there is widespread support for raising the minimum driving age and increasing driver education, announced today in the new Transport Ministry 10-year road safety strategy, Safer Journeys, by Transport Minister Steven Joyce.
Young drivers and drink drivers - over-represented in the death and injury statistics - are among the main targets, as the Government proposes raising the driving age to 16, introducing tougher restricted license testing, a zero drink-drive limit for drivers under 20 and looking into reducing the current adult blood alcohol consumption limit from 80mg/100ml (0.08) to 50mg/100ml (0.05).
The rule changes will be taken to Cabinet in April.
Mr Joyce will also seek then to either lower the adult limit or conduct research into how much safer drivers were with a 0.05 limit than 0.08.
He stressed no decision had been made on reducing the blood alcohol limit.
But the Green Party said the Government was making a scapegoat of young people, rather than addressing the bigger problem of drink driving.
The blood alcohol limit should be reduced to 0.05, as recommended by the World Health Organisation and used by most countries, said transport spokesman Gareth Hughes.
Driving under the influence of drink or drugs contributed to one third of all fatal crashes and drink driving had increased over the past four years among drivers under 35, he said.
The party supported strengthening the restricted licence test and lifting the driving age to 16 but wanted exemptions for rural areas or where there was limited public transport.
The Council of Trade Union's youth movement also supported more driver training but lifting the driving age to 16 "seemed like a fudge''.
"This compromise will hurt fewer people, but it will still disadvantage thousands of 15-year-olds seeking to access jobs, education and training, or to take part in sport and community events,'' said Stand Up convener James Sleep.
Alcohol Healthwatch said the failure to promptly lower the blood alcohol level was a missed chance to save lives.
Implementing a zero tolerance for under 20s was likely to be counterproductive if the adult limit was not also reduced, said director Rebecca Williams.
"Putting the onus on young people alone to solve this problem is completely unacceptable when adults are not expected to set a positive example.''
The current level of 0.08 still allowed people to drive when they were not capable, she said.
Automobile Association (AA) spokesman Mike Noon said the organisation was "pretty happy'' with the strategy because it focussed on high risk areas.
The AA also supported zero alcohol for youth, however, Mr Noon said the drivers who were killing themselves were not recording blood alcohol levels between 0.05 and 0.08, but two thirds of them were over 0.16 (160mg).
"At that level you have trouble standing up. More assessment is needed of those caught with high limits. We don't want these drivers to be driving again. Driving is a privilege, if you have been drinking we need to be protected from you.''
The AA fully supported the use of compulsory alcohol interlocks for repeat drink drivers, which the minister said would have to be paid for by the driver.
"If they want the privilege of driving they should pay for them.''
The AA was keen to see an increased amount of driver supervision to about 120 hours when currently learner drivers were currently only getting between 25 and 35 hours "and that's being generous''.
