A 20-year-old Wanaka driver who crashed three times on Saturday night before being stopped by a lamppost was three times over the legal breath-alcohol limit, Wanaka police said yesterday.
"He blew 1251mcg, which is high. I don't know how you could drink that much and still drive, and, to be honest, obviously he couldn't," Senior Sergeant Allan Grindell, of Wanaka, said.
Snr Sgt Grindell said the man drove off the road on to a grass verge on Hedditch St, narrowly missing two pedestrians before hitting a car with a boat and trailer attached. His car then struck two more cars outside a liquor store on Ardmore St before hitting and toppling a lamppost on the roundabout at the corner of Anderson Rd and State Highway 84.
The man will appear in the Queenstown District Court.
Snr Sgt Grindell said high breath-alcohol levels were being recorded in Wanaka. "The previous weekend, we stopped two people in the high 900s. Then this one at 1200. You don't blow 900 or 1200 on a couple of jugs of beer ... It is not a good sign," he said.
Wanaka police had just finished their eight-week drink-driving blitz, during which they processed 18 people for drink-driving.
