The number of teenagers caught drink-driving has halved in the past five years, but those who are stopped are blowing more than twice the adult limit.
Police figures released to the Herald show a dramatic drop in the number of under-17s caught drink-driving, from 630 in 2007 to 305 last year.
The figures follow law and policy changes, including a zero limit for drivers under 20, increasing the driving age to 16 and making the restricted licence test harder, aimed at reducing the road toll.
The national road policing manager, Superintendent Rob Morgan, said the statistics were encouraging and reflected efforts by the Government and police to stop teens driving drunk.
"All those road safety conversations are what we believe is having an impact,'' he said.
While the number of teenagers caught drunk behind the wheel was small compared to the number who had licences, Mr Morgan said police were still trying to reduce it further.
"It's something we would like to see at zero, that's what we're working towards.''
The chief executive of Students Against Drink Driving (Sadd) , Anna Braidwood, said the figures were "really pleasing'' and the reduction was significant.
"But it's still a major issue, especially for our young drivers, so it's a case of not really taking our foot off the pedal. We really want to keep up that momentum so we can keep that trend going down.''
The charitable organisation's aim is to reduce road deaths and injuries from drink-driving by promoting positive behaviour change in 13- to 17-year-olds.
People under 17 are legally considered to be youths and their cases are managed by the Youth Court unless their crime is serious enough to warrant being charged as an adult.
Sadd's education programme runs in 66 per cent of secondary schools, and has been active for about 26 years.
The organisation was working towards a "perfect world vision'' where no New Zealanders are caught drink-driving, Ms Braidwood said.
She believed several factors, including the Government's Safer Journeys campaign, were behind the reduction in the number of young drink-drivers caught by police.
Safer Journeys is a strategy to guide improvements in road safety.
Ms Braidwood said the hugely popular "ghost chips'' anti drink-driving commercial, which started screening in November as part of the Transport Agency's Legend campaign, had also had a positive effect.
"It just took off and it really seemed to resonate with young people ... it's not going to be a silver bullet, it's not going to cure all, but it's been one of those key messages put out there and young people have retained the information.
"Ghost chips became one of the strategies they would apply if they wanted to stop their mate drink-driving.''
One of the main problems was that young drivers knew the risks of driving under the influence of alcohol, but still made the decision to drive after having a few drinks.
"The majority of young people don't start the night thinking they're going to make a bad decision at the end of the night, whether that's driving drunk themselves or hopping in the car with a drunk driver.
"But what we're finding is that there's a series of bad decisions that happen after people have started drinking.''
Sadd's "Plan B4 U Party'' campaign was trying to get young people to make smart decisions before they start drinking so the temptation to get behind the wheel was removed.
These include arranging a designated driver who wouldn't drink, pre-arranging to be collected, or taking a taxi or other form of public transport.
- Amelia Wade, NZ Herald
