Double demerits slow drivers down
Thursday June 11, 2009
Double demerit points as part of the Statewide Operation Stay Alert are being attributed to the lack of incidents on local roads over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend.
During the operation, which ran from midnight last Thursday to midnight Monday, local police carried out almost 800 random breath tests.
Local general duties officers detected two drink driving offences and nine other traffic infringements from the 361 mostly stationary random breath tests they carried out over the weekend.
Senior Constable Sue Huggins said the majority of offences were not displaying P plates, and police also defected one vehicle.
Highway patrol officers detected 18 speeding offences and handed out 13 traffic infringement notices which included P plate, log book and seatbelt offences.
“We detected an unregistered vehicle that travelled all the way from WA,” highway patrol officer Senior Constable Greg Martin said.
“Overall the double demerits system has the tendency to bring people back to reality and it really seems to work,” he said.
During the operation a 48 year old Cobar man was stopped for random breath test in Bourke Street at 9.30pm on Sunday which returned positive result.
He was conveyed to Cobar Police Station for a breath analysis and subsequently charged with driving with a mid range prescribed concentration of alcohol (PCA).
The man’s licence was suspended on the spot and he was scheduled to appear in Cobar Local Court yesterday.
A 20 year old local man was charged with driving with a low range prescribed concentration of alcohol.
He was stopped at 12.05am on Sunday for a random breath test in Railway Parade North which was positive.
Highway patrol officers also carried out 429 random breath tests and detected one special range drink driving offence.
Senior Constable Martin said coinciding with Operation Stay Alert a range of infringement notices were also handed out for offences such as parking in a loading zone, not stopping at a stop sign, not giving way at an intersection and helmet offences for bicycle riders.
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