Coroner calls for increase of alcohol purchasing age following death of drink-driving teen

Stuff co.nz 5 December 2018
Family First Comment: We lobbied for increasing the age – even released a report with the research evidence – when Parliament last messed this issue up…
“There appears to be incontrovertible evidence of a direct link between the lowering of the alcohol purchasing age in 1999 and an increase in the incidence of injury and fatal accidents involving alcohol impaired drivers aged 15-19 years,” the coroner said.
https://www.familyfirst.org.nz/research/young-people-and-alcohol/

A coroner is urging the Government to raise the drinking age to 20 after the death of a 19-year-old drink driver.

Blenheim butcher George Bernard Holland was killed in the early hours of August 6, 2017, when he failed to give way at a one-way bridge in Marlborough, colliding head-on with a heavy truck and trailer.

Holland, who that night drank about 12 cans of Double Brown while on a “boys weekend” in Murchison, also had MDMA (ecstasy) and cannabis in his system.

Coroner David Robinson said the crash could have been prevented if Holland adhered to the zero alcohol level for drivers under 20.

In his findings, released on Wednesday, the coroner referred to extensive research in recommending the Government return the minimum alcohol purchase age to 20 with no exceptions.

The alcohol purchase age was reduced in December 1999. One study, found “significantly” more alcohol-involved crashes amongst 15 to 19-year-olds in the four years following while a more recent study found the number of alcohol-related crashes in this age group increased from 102 in 2014 to 142 in 2017.

“There appears to be incontrovertible evidence of a direct link between the lowering of the alcohol purchasing age in 1999 and an increase in the incidence of injury and fatal accidents involving alcohol impaired drivers aged 15-19 years,” the coroner said.
READ MORE: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/109067753/coroner-calls-for-increase-of-alcohol-purchasing-age-following-death-of-drinkdriving-teen