Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Dylan Thomsen: AA Road Safety Spokesperson on the implementation of roadside drug tests

Transcript

Dylan Thomsen: AA Road Safety Spokesperson on the implementation of roadside drug tests · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: New roadside drug testing is coming. Starts in Wellington next
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: month everywhere from April next year saliva tests. This is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: for cannabis, meth, MDMA, ecstasy, that sort of stuff. Dylan
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  Speaker 1: Thompson is our Road Safety joining us this morning. Dylan,
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  Speaker 1: good morning, Good morning, Ryan. Hey, this is going to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: make things safer.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely in our view, we think this has been something
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  Speaker 2: that New Zealanders needed for a lot of years. We
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: have had about one hundred road death a year in
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  Speaker 2: recent times where subsequent tests have found drugs in the
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  Speaker 2: driver's system that were deemed to have likely played a
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  Speaker 2: role in the crash. So we're finally about to sort
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  Speaker 2: of catch up and start to have some decent enforcement
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  Speaker 2: tools to try and stop this.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, so that was going to be my next question.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: So they likely played a role in the crash, So
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  Speaker 1: thirty percent of crashes they had drugs in their system,
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  Speaker 1: not just that they also likely caused the crash.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Well, I would change that so lightly and say that
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: they played a role in the crash. So the crash
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  Speaker 2: investigations are done and a blood test gets done in
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  Speaker 2: a lab and it finds because not every driver involved
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  Speaker 2: in a fatal crash has their bloods tested for drugs.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a situation where the police officers investigating have thought,
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  Speaker 2: we would like to do a blood test and then
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  Speaker 2: they deem that we think that the drugs likely played
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: a role in causing the crash.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: And can they tell because I think what the some
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  Speaker 1: of the concerns have been about this is about the
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  Speaker 1: level of So is someone impaired by drugs or do
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: they just have them in their system? You know what
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  Speaker 1: I'm saying?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that is trickier than alcohol without a doubt.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: The tests that are being introduced in New Zealand, so
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the saliva tests are designed to try and detect recent
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  Speaker 2: use and so that is somebody has likely to have
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  Speaker 2: used one of those four drugs that are going to
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  Speaker 2: be tested for at the roadside within a couple of
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  Speaker 2: hours of getting in the car. That's that's the way
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  Speaker 2: they're designed to work and pick things up.
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  Speaker 1: And what about the because I note that they said
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  Speaker 1: it would take five minutes per car, is this going
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  Speaker 1: to be rolled out like breathalyzer tests? And is that
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  Speaker 1: you know, is everyone going to be waiting in a
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  Speaker 1: line for four hours if they do this or is
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  Speaker 1: it just on a one on you a one off
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  Speaker 1: basis that they see a car and then they pull
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  Speaker 1: it over and do that.
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  Speaker 2: The way it's going to work is what the law
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  Speaker 2: now allows is police have the ability to test any
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: driver for drugs if they want to. But the way
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  Speaker 2: it's going to go in reality is we're not going
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  Speaker 2: to see drug testing done in the same volume, the
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  Speaker 2: same scale as the alcohol tests the way it's normally
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  Speaker 2: done overseas as an alcohol test has done first, because
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  Speaker 2: that's pretty quick and if that comes back negative, but
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  Speaker 2: a police officer says the striver's behavior is making me
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: think that they may be under the influence of something,
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  Speaker 2: then they can ask that person to pull over to
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  Speaker 2: the side of the road somewhere and go to a
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  Speaker 2: drug test, which the first one normally would be done
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  Speaker 2: in sort of three to five minutes.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Dylant, appreciate your time this morning. Dyan Thompson from AA
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: For more.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: From Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks it'd be from five am weekdays,
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  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.