Western Australia’s Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner has welcomed the addition of two mini booze buses to the WA Police Force fleet.

The Commissioner joined Police and Road Safety Minister Michelle Roberts and Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Zanetti to inspect the new buses at Police Headquarters.

“The first breath analysis apparatus was used on Western Australian drivers in 1968, a simple tube with crystals that changed colour,” said Mr Warner.

“52 years on, Western Australia now has two state of the art booze and drug buses to get drivers who continue to risk their lives and the lives of other road users by getting behind the wheel drunk or under the influence of drugs.”

In 2019, 33 people died on WA roads in crashes where the WA Police Force suspected alcohol was a factor. That makes up 20 percent of the 163 lives lost on WA roads last year.

However, there is a downward trend in alcohol-related fatalities on WA roads.

The 2019 figures represent a 25 percent decrease on the preceding five-year average of 44 alcohol-related road deaths, and a 47 percent decrease on the recent peak of 62 alcohol-related fatalities recorded in 2016.