Two new drug and alcohol testing buses, worth $8.6 million, are coming to Western Australian regional roads. The announcement is part of an additional $32.5 million in funding over the next four years to boost safety on regional roads.
It’s hoped the two additional drug and alcohol testing buses will help stop drink and drug drivers in their tracks. The cost of the new buses is being paid for from the Road Trauma Trust Account, which is funded by speed and red-light camera infringements.
“The two new breath and drug testing buses will give police additional capacity to test motorists for drink and drug affected driving outside of the metropolitan area, further boosting safety throughout Western Australia,” said Police Minister Paul Papalia.
The other additional WA regional funding is being spent on:
- $20 million safety treatments on key local government roads.
- $2.1 million for increased police traffic enforcement in regional areas plus high-visibility police car livery.
- $1.8 million for improved traffic data gathering.
The funding allocation was decided after a recent roundtable with road safety experts and advocates to examine new and innovative ways to improve safety on WA roads. This follows the worst year-to-date road toll in the state since 2016. The initiatives specifically target regional areas of WA, which have recorded a sharp spike in road deaths in the year-to-date.
A brief history of alcohol testing in Western Australia
The first breath analysis apparatus was used on Western Australian drivers in 1968. It was a simple tube with crystals that changed colour when alcohol was detected. It wasn’t until the 1980s that alcohol breathalysers were first used to conduct alcohol testing.
The need to conduct roadside alcohol testing is quite clear. In 2019, for example, 33 people died on WA roads in crashes where alcohol was thought to be a factor. That’s around 20% of all the fatalities that year.
The good news is that for the most part there has been a downward trend in WA for alcohol-related road fatalities. Particularly when compared with the middle decades of the 20th century, when driving home drunk was practically accepted.
The 2019 figures represent a 25% decrease on the preceding five-year average and a very significant 47% decrease on the recent peak of 62 alcohol-related fatalities recorded in 2016.
How has the reduced alcohol-related fatalities been achieved? While roadside alcohol testing in WA and other initiatives have certainly helped, community attitudes have been perhaps the biggest contributor.
A Community Attitudes Monitor Survey conducted a few years ago found that road safety was one of the top four issue in the minds of West Australians. This has led to the number of WA drivers who find it acceptable to drive while under the influence dropping.
Even in more recent years, the number of WA people who admit to having driven while over the legal BAC limit has significantly reduced. In 2015 it was 26%; in 2019 it was down to 10%. While these numbers are still way too high, it’s great to see the trend going down.
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Two new drug and alcohol testing buses, worth $8.6 million, are coming to Western Australian regional roads.
