Eric Crampton • Jul 16, 2015 •
Olivia Wannan reports on the latest drink driving fatality statistics:The law changed on December 1, cutting the limit from 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood to 50mg, and from 400 micrograms of alcohol per litreof breath to 250mcg.I... Read More
Eric Crampton • Apr 21, 2015 •
Some folks, you just can't reach. David Farrar's pessimistic in this case:Stuff reports:A man believed to be New Zealand’s worst recidivist drink-driver will be released from prison next month, despite describing himself as a “danger to the community”.Raymond Charles Laing was jailed for three years in 2012 after notching up his 26th conviction for driving under the influence … Read More
Eric Crampton • Dec 05, 2014 •
NewstalkZB asked me Monday morning to comment on the new .05 drink driving limit.I noted that it is likely to prevent some crashes, but that I did worry about whether it was worth the cost. The cost-benefit analysis that formed the background to the RI... Read More
Eric Crampton • Apr 29, 2014 •
So, did reducing NZ's alcohol purchase age really hike youth accident rates? SHORE says so:Now, in the first long-term study, Massey University researchers Dr Taisia Huckle and Karl Parker have found this increased risk has become the new normal.In the... Read More
Eric Crampton • Nov 29, 2013 •
The New Zealand Herald asked me for comment on a new study showing that driving while hung over is a bit riskier than driving while at the .05 level. I told them:“It isn’t particularly surprising that driving while hung over increases accident risk. I would expect that driving while suffering from a very bad cold and headache, or driving … Read More
Eric Crampton • Nov 05, 2013 •
Cabinet's decided to bring forward legislation knocking the drink driving limit from 0.08 to 0.05.In 2009, National first started talking about this move. Would it make sense? They held off pending further study. I've not seen the papers they now have on this, but here's how I'd suggested checking it back in 2010. We'd need to start with … Read More
Eric Crampton • Sep 30, 2013 •
A member's bill proposing a reduction in the drink driving limit was drawn from the ballot. Last year, I ran some ball-park numbers on what would be needed for it to make sense to reduce the drink driving limit from 0.08 to 0.05. While you would have ... Read More
Anna Sandiford • Feb 03, 2013 •
It’s always struck me as a bit odd, the disparity between the NZ drug driving law and the drink driving law. My non-lawyer’s view is that drug driving law stipulates that a person is guilty of the office if their blood contains evidence of a qualifying drug. This means that if even a small amount (read more) … Read More
Eric Crampton • Dec 27, 2012 •
At the same time that I was trying to get stats on the number of drivers in the .05 to .08 range who had not been involved in accidents, Canterbury's Professor of Finance Glenn Boyle was getting annoyed with the New Zealand Herald's campaigning for a 0... Read More
Eric Crampton • Dec 19, 2012 •
We simply cannot tell whether changing the drink driving limit to 0.05 from 0.08 is a good idea unless we have some idea what proportion of drivers on the road at different times of day are in that range. We can talk a lot about the numerator - how man... Read More