Families of drink-driving victims call for harsher penalties

Family members of victims who've been killed by drink-drivers say harsher penalties are needed to prevent people getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.

Emma Hands lost her mum, 56-year-old Kathy Sexton, in April last year after a drunk driver crashed into her vehicle near Stillwater on the West Coast.

"She was with my nephew and his friend. They'd just picked up their McDonalds and on the way home they were passing through Stillwater and the drunk driver was coming towards them and hit them head-on. She died instantly".

Brian Lewis, 66, who was three times over the legal alcohol limit, pleaded guilty to the charges of drink driving with excess blood alcohol causing death, plus two charges of driving above the limit and causing injury.

But the pensioner recently appealed to have his sentence reduced, shaving five months off his jail time.

Hands has described that as an injustice, and says stricter punishments must be put into play.

"More jail time, losing licenses for longer. They need to be really scared from it."

"It's not right and it doesn't need to happen. It's avoidable deaths", she said.

It comes as new figures from the Automobile Association revealed drink-driving deaths in New Zealand have reached a 10-year peak, doubling from 53 in 2013, to 111 in 2022.

"New Zealand right now is losing the battle against drunk driving", AA road safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen said.

Thomsen believes more alcohol checkpoints are the best way forward.

"We simply aren't doing enough alcohol checkpoints. They are a critical tool in preventing deaths and serious injuries on our roads."

Police currently have a target to test three million drivers per year, but haven't met that figure since 2014.

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NZ's deadliest year for drunk drivers in a decade - new data

Aotearoa is "losing the battle on drunk driving," the Automobile Association says.

New Zealand

June 29, 2023

"We were impacted by the Covid environment. It's impacted our ability to get out and breath test people but we are doing a lot better than last year", Assistant Commissioner of deployment and road policing Naila Hassan said.

The Government also has a target through its Road to Zero strategy to reduce road deaths by 40% by 2030, a goal which grieving families hope is being taken seriously.