Operation Safe Arrival concluded at 11.59pm on January 1, following 13 days of high-visibility policing that was targeting poor driving behaviour.
More than 1,000 random breath tests were conducted in the Corowa area throughout the holiday period, with Corowa police sergeant Gary Lewis pleased to report only a single driver was caught drink-driving.
“There was a large police presence during the holiday period trying to ensure drivers were practicing safe driving and weren’t committing offences such as drink driving, speeding, driver fatigue, mobile phone use and seatbelt offences,” he told The Free Press.
“One driver was caught with a low range drink driving offense and another driver was found driving while unlicensed.
“Overall we were pretty pleased with the behavior of drivers during the holiday period.”
Double demerit points were in place for speeding, seatbelt and helmet offences across NSW until January 2.
Extra police were on the roads across the state, targeting drink and drug-driving, fatigue and mobile phone use.
There were 882 major crashes and 11 people died on the roads over the period of the operation for NSW.
Police conducted more than 525,000 breath tests. They also recorded 11,722 speed infringements and 721 PCA (drink driving) charges, which was a decrease overall from last year.
Sergeant Lewis said that while Operation Safe Arrival has concluded, that doesn’t mean officers will be taking it easy.
“Driver behaviour has been pretty good up to this point but with the heightened bushfire alert status across the region and things like Australia Day coming up, we’ll continue to be on the lookout for drivers doing the wrong thing.”
NSW Police will be preparing for the next major state-wide operation that runs over the Australia Day period, called Operation Safe Return.
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