Hume District Police will be running several operations with highway patrol and Roads and Maritime Services over the coming month.

These will target known hot spots and conduct random breath and drug testing.

“Traffic accidents with injuries and fatalities ramp up during the seasonal period,” Yass Valley Police Inspector Alison Brennan said.

“This is about prevention. If one person we charge prevents a fatality, it’s worth 1000 charges.

“No one likes to get a fine, but [what] if you posed the question [would it be worth it] if it saved someone’s life?”

In 2018, in the Hume district there were 177 drink driving charges and 71 people tested positive for drugs.

That’s around one in 10 people who have been tested, Inspector Brennan said.

To date, some 333 people were also killed in road accidents and road safety statistics show that drink driving is a factor in about one in every seven crashes in NSW, in which someone loses their life.

“We are targeting back roads that people use to drive home – those can end in fatalities,” Inspector Brennan said. “There is a misconception that they won’t be detected by police.”

​On Friday December 14, police will conduct a traffic operation that will see a heavy police presence focusing on traffic offences. Operation Safe Arrival will then run from mid-December.