Police are warning road users to be wary of ongoing risky behaviour after incidents during Operation Safe Return.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A 41-year-old woman was charged in the early hours of Australia Day by police officers reporting to the Orana Mid-Western Police District after they stopped her on Parkes street in Wellington.
Police pulled the vehicle over at about 3.30am on Sunday, January 26 and conducted a roadside breath test, which returned a positive reading.
READ ALSO:
The woman was promptly arrested and taken to Wellington Police Station where a full breath analysis was conducted and returned a blood alcohol reading of 0.214, which constitutes a high range PCA charge.
The woman in question will be issued a Court Attendance Notice and will appear in Dubbo Local Court on the charges at a later date.
If found guilty, the maximum penalty for a first time high range drink driving offence is a $3,300 with a minimum of twelve months suspended from driving and a potential maximum prison term of 18 months.
The operation, a long weekend blitz aimed at cracking down on unsafe driving, saw police issuing double across the Australia Day weekend for various offences including speeding, improper or lax seatbelt usage, usage of mobile phones and other handheld devices and offences related to motorcycle helmets as well as a crackdown on drivers operating vehicles while fatigued.
NSW Police officers also targeted other crimes across the weekend, with a focus on drunk driving and drug- affected driving.
The crackdown began on midnight on Friday, January 24 and ended at 11.59pm on Monday, January 27, with police across the state witnessing 3,164 speeding offences during that time period, along with attending to 217 major crashes and administering 141,974 breath tests by day three.
Police charged 214 drivers who were found to be under the influence of alcohol and and three fatalities were reported on the state's roads, including a man, believed to be in his 70s, who died after his vehicle rolled over in Parkes on Monday at around 11.20am.
During the the 2019 iterations of Operation Safe Return, three fatalities were reported across the long weekend in January, while 478 people were charged with drink-driving offences and 4584 speeding infringements were issued to drivers across the state.
