{"id":17710,"date":"2026-06-19T17:47:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17710"},"modified":"2026-06-19T17:47:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:47:29","slug":"deeply-concerning-on-duty-taxi-driver-allegedly-blows-six-times-over-legal-alcohol-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17710","title":{"rendered":"‘Deeply concerning’: On-duty taxi driver allegedly blows six times over legal alcohol limit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An on-duty taxi driver has been caught allegedly driving six times over the legal alcohol limit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a statement, Senior Sergeant Bill Russell said police were called on Thursday afternoon about a taxi van that had had several alleged near-misses with other vehicles on Auckland’s southwestern motorway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Russell said the caller thought the driver may have fallen asleep at the wheel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As the taxi van approached the Waterview Tunnel, heading northbound, Russell said the driver’s speed continued to fluctuate between slow and high.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Police located the vehicle on State Highway 20 near Mount Albert.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A 40-year-old male was then taken into custody for a breath alcohol check, allegedly returning a result more than six times the legal limit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Police confirmed the driver was on duty at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s deeply concerning to us that a professional driver has been transporting passengers while allegedly under the influence of alcohol,” Russell said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I shudder to think what might have happened had this man not been stopped.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Russell praised the actions of the caller.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The person that reported this to us should be commended for seeing something and doing something about it, calling police.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“I understand the caller also got behind the van and put hazard lights on to try and warn other motorists, and we acknowledge their assistance.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The driver has been summonsed to appear in court, on a charge of being a transport service driver with breath alcohol over 400mcgs per litre.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Inquiries continue and further action against the man has not been ruled out.<\/p>\n

Source: RNZ<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An on-duty taxi driver has been caught allegedly driving six times over the legal alcohol limit. In a statement, Senior Sergeant Bill Russell said police were called on Thursday afternoon about a taxi van that had had several alleged near-misses with other vehicles on Auckland’s southwestern motorway. Russell said the caller thought the driver may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17712,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17710\/revisions\/17712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}