A bylaw to ban "booze cruises" would be a first in New Zealand if introduced by the Waitaki District Council.
Yesterday, the Waitaki Safer Community Trust urged the council to introduce a bylaw banning open containers of alcohol in vehicles, stopping what its president Peter Munro described as "bars-in-cars syndrome".
Council strategy group manager Richard Mabon and Waitaki Safer Community officer Alison Banks were both unaware of any other local authority in New Zealand with such a bylaw.
The council was considering submissions on a review of its Waitaki Liquor Ban Bylaw, which will now be referred to a special subcommittee for details to be finalised before being brought back to the council, probably on November 24.
Mr Munro said the trust was "very earnestly and seriously" asking the council to introduce a bylaw banning open alcohol containers in vehicles.
The trust, Waitaki Guardians volunteer and former Oamaru police sergeant Derek Beveridge and Students Against Driving Drunk all supported the idea.
Their concerns were fuelled by an incident in Oamaru at the weekend in which a 16-year-old secondary school pupil was driving around Oamaru on Saturday night with an alleged blood-alcohol level of 855mcg in a van with another 11 people on board.
Early on Saturday morning, two young people were killed when a vehicle with nine young people on board crossed the centre line and collided head on with a car near Napier.
Mr Munro said the incident in Oamaru was a practical example of "the horrifics of vehicles and liquor".
There had been deaths in the Waitaki district as a result of "boozing and cruising".
"I would like to see the council add into its bylaw a ban on open containers of alcohol in vehicles," Mr Munro said.
Mr Beveridge also promoted introducing a bylaw to ban open alcohol containers in vehicles to stop "booze cruises".
There was a serious problem, not only in Oamaru but throughout the whole of the Waitaki district, of "carloads boozing and throwing bottles out the window".
The incident in Oamaru on Saturday night with 12 young people in the van drinking was an example of what was a widespread problem in the district.
"You have the opportunity to do something about that," Mr Beveridge told the council.
Asked by Cr Jim Hopkins if the council could, if it wished, ban "boozing and cruising", Mr Mabon said it could amend its bylaw to include that.
Mr Beveridge said the council should do that, or at least look at it in the future.
Students Against Driving Drunk chairwoman Lana Ennis said the organisation also supported such a bylaw.
Banning open liquor containers in vehicles would also reduce the temptation for a sober driver to drink, Miss Ennis said.
The subcommittee appointed to consider the submissions and make recommendations to council is made up of Crs Struan Munro (chairman), Mr Hopkins, Peter Twiss and Kathy Dennison.
