A weekend road safety enforcement campaign has not deterred some drivers from risky road behaviours in our area.
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A total of 44 drink and drug-driving offences were detected last weekend in southern New South Wales.
Operation Chrome ran from Friday to Sunday and targeted dangerous driving on rural roads including speeding, drink and drug-driving, not wearing seatbelts, using a mobile phone and fatigue.
Police and the Traffic and Highway Patrol worked together during the operation and conducted 8016 random breath tests (RBT) and 196 random drug tests.
Of those, 34 people were charged with drink driving and ten people returned a positive indication for the presence of a prohibited drug.
Eight seat belt offences were also detected.
At 8.30am on Saturday, police were conducting a stationary RBT on Yass Valley Way as part of Operation Chrome. A 28-year-old man from Bowning was stopped and returned a positive breath test, local Highway Patrol Sergeant Stephen Pidgeon said.
He was arrested and taken to Yass Police Station where he returned a reading of 0.131. His licence was suspended and he was issued with a court attendance notice.
At 6.25pm on the same day, police were conducting a stationary RBT on the Barton Highway at Murrumbateman. A 45-year-old old man from the Australian Capital Territory was stopped and returned a positive breath test, Sergeant Pidgeon said.
He was arrested and taken to Yass Police Station where he returned a reading of 0.060. He was issued with an infringement notice.
"One positive test is one too many," Southern Region Commander, Assistant Commissioner Joe Cassar said.
"We will not hesitate to stop a vehicle if we think the driver's behaviour places everyone in the vehicle at risk of being in a crash.
"The focus on rural roads will not end because Operation Chrome has. We are making state-wide preparations to be on the road in numbers during the October long weekend and school holidays."
