But the number of people being caught drink driving has dropped.
Canterbury road policing manager Senior Sergeant Mike Jones said it suggests the increased clampdown on drink drivers is working and discouraging people from getting behind the wheel after consuming alcohol.
Said Jones: “We’re doing more checkpoints and we’re putting more people through, but we’re catching less people.
“So, the theory is that because we’re being out there, being more visible and we’re doing more checkpoints and making ourselves visible, people are changing their perception about driving impaired in Christchurch.”
Jones said this time last year, about one in every 216 motorists stopped at checkpoints in Canterbury were found to be over the legal breath alcohol limit of 250mcg.
This year, about one in every 288 have been over the limit.
Part of this success is the result of police setting up micro-checkpoints over the last four months, Jones said.
These take as few as one officer and one police vehicle to run, and have allowed police to set up in more locations, more often, to catch boozed motorists.
Jones said each crash has a financial cost to society.
Fatal crashes cost New Zealand $4.53 million per incident, crashes in which there were serious injuries cost $477,000 each and $25,000 for minor injuries.
Jones said in the last four months, there has been no societal cost of crashes where alcohol was a factor, compared to $677,000 in the same period last year and $5.7 million in 2019.
The increased number of checkpoints has caught motorists off guard.
Jones said one driver, at the time they were stopped, told police: “I have been through three checkpoints in the last week and two tonight.”
Another motorist said they had been stopped at a large checkpoint on Pages Rd and a micro checkpoint on Papanui Rd that same night.
