New road policing team at work near resort

A road policing team with a renewed focus on impaired and high-risk driving is being trialled in the Otago Lakes Central area this summer.

The area’s new road policing manager, Senior Sergeant Sarah Thorn, said the "safer roads team", consisting of a sergeant and five constables, began operating last week.

It was using a new van that allowed it to be "fast and agile" in where it set up breath-screening checkpoints.

Snr Sgt Thorn, who transferred from West Auckland two and a-half months ago to take up her Queenstown-based role, said motorists should expect to be breath-tested over the holiday period.

The team had already stopped and breath-tested more than 1200 drivers over two days, with 70 found to have consumed alcohol and four drivers over the legal limit.

"If you’re thinking about having just a couple of drinks and then driving, think again, because we will be anywhere, any time, and every driver will be breath-tested."

She urged people to make a plan for getting home.

Along with alcohol impairment and speed, driver distraction and failing to use restraints were the main factors causing death and serious injury on the roads, she said.