Data was collected at roadside police Random Breath Testing (RBT) sites during April to May 2012. A total of 8,435 tests were conducted over a six week period on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Around 7% of drivers tested returned a positive BAC, and 1.4% of these had BACs over the legal limit. This represents a significant reduction in the number of drivers detected with an illegal BAC compared to both of the two previous survey findings of 2.1% of drivers in 2000 and 1.9% in 1999.
Amongst the drivers with illegal BACs there was a smaller proportion of drivers detected (0.7%) in the current survey within the ≥0.05-0.079 g/100ml range compared to the two previous surveys (1.0% & 1.1%).
Road safety benefit:
The research was beneficial to the extent that it provided Government with recommendations that include:
- Regular roadside breath testing enforcement schedules should be extended into the early hours of the morning to reflect the evolving changes in socialisation and alcohol consumption patterns.
- Removing back calculations for blood alcohol concentrations.
