Effect of random tests may be wearing off

Press, 14 March 1984, Page 13

Effect of random tests may be wearing off

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney The initial effects of random breath testing are beginning to wear off in New South Wales, and the road toll has sharply increased, according to the latest figures. The number of deaths in the first two months of 1984 is up 26.6 per cent on the opening months of random testing in the state last year. The arrest rate and the number of drivers tested also increased. With New South Wales now into its second full year

of random testing — it began on December 17, 1982 — the statistics for the first two months of 1984 are the first important guide to how the state’s drivers are growing to live with it. The toll for January and February was 181 compared with 143, 163,887 drivers were tested, and 766 arrested. While the state’s Ministry of Transport agreed this week that the novelty of the random testing was wearing off, a spokesman also pointed to the summer weather which was about three times wetter than last

year, and said that with the economic upturn people were travelling more. He said that while the toll was up, the average for the same period over the six years before the introduction of random breath testing was 218. However, the secretary of the New South Wales TransS>rt Workers’ Union, Mr arry Quinn, said the random testing was a gimmick being used as an excuse for not building better roads.

He attributed last year’s big drop in the toll to the recession rather than the testing.