A police impairment prevention team which deployed in Wānaka last Friday (April 12) administered 694 breath tests to drivers across two policing checkpoints.

Five of those drivers were over the legal alcohol limit to drive and each of them was around “one more mouthful” away from a more serious charge, Wānaka Police senior sergeant Fiona (Fi) Roberts said.

“All of those drivers were at infringement level but every one of them were within 25 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath from a summons to court and inevitable minimum six months loss of licence,” Fi said.

“People are pushing it.”

Fi said the police were made aware of a driver in a parked van who was warning drivers away from one of the checkpoints.

She reminded the public that the police do breath testing with community safety in mind.

“The people who come through our checkpoints are your mums, dads, kids, grandparents, your builder, plumber, firefighter, mechanic, your teacher and you. We would love to test 5,000 people in a night and charge nobody.”

“It isn’t worth the personal risk or the risk [to] the people close to you, to roll the dice by driving home when you’ve had a few.”

Safe driving these school holidays

Driver behaviour of all kinds is front of mind for Wānaka Police as the busy school holiday period begins.

“Expect to see high visibility during the school holidays, a lot of people will be on our roads including overseas visitors..,” Fi said.

She encouraged drivers to take their time and drive to the conditions.

Police are focused on four key behaviours: restraints (wearing seatbelts), impairment (drinking and driving or using drugs and driving), distractions (like using the phone while driving), and speed.

Earthquake preparedness

Fi met with Queenstown Lakes District mayor Glyn Lewers last week about AF8 (resilience planning for a magnitude 8 alpine fault earthquake) and she has another meeting with Civil Defence Emergency Management and other agencies coming up.

“This is something that has lived in my mind having lived through the Christchurch earthquake,” she said.

She encouraged residents to undertake some planning for the event of an AF8 by doing a check of supplies and coming up with a plan for their household.

“I’d like for Wānaka to be resilient not reliant,” she said.

Find more planning advice on the AF8 website.

Apple Watch error calls

Fi also asked Apple Watch owners to call the local police station right away if they find their Apple Watch has alerted emergency services in error.

Apple Watches have the ability to detect car crashes and they automatically alert emergency services if one is detected, but sometimes these calls can be made in error. 

She said last week police travelled up and down Cardrona Valley Road after an automated call was received from an Apple Watch, but they did not find any crashed vehicle or occupants.

It saves on police resources if people get in touch quickly if they realise an alert has been sent unnecessarily, she said.

Call 111 when you need an emergency response from police, fire or ambulance.

Call 105 to report things that don’t need urgent police assistance.

Call *555 to report road incidents that are urgent but not life-threatening.

To make an anonymous crime report contact Crime Stoppers.

PHOTO: Wānaka App