IT was a case of the early birds catching the worm on Monday morning as vigilant police officers stopped a vehicle near Wallendbeen.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In this case, a 33-year-old Cootamundra man observed weaving from side to side along the Olympic Highway will now face drink driving charges at Cootamundra Local Court.
The police stopped the man who was driving a grey Toyota Corolla at Wallendbeen about 6.50am on Monday after allegedly swerving from side to side within the southbound lane.
They administered a breath test and, after providing a positive sample, the driver was taken to Cootamundra Police Station where he returned an alleged reading of 0.204.
He was charged with high-range drink-driving to appear before Cootamundra Local Court on Monday, November 2.
His licence was also suspended.
Aside from this one incident, local police officers says Operation Slowdown – the state’s Labour Day long weekend road-safety campaign – resulted in good outcomes locally.
The offensive, which ran from midnight Thursday to midnight Monday saw double demerits in place over the entire long weekend for all speeding, seatbelt and motorcycle-helmet offences.
The high-visibility policing strategy included all police vehicles on duty detecting and deterring traffic offences.
Officer in Charge of Young Police Station, Inspector Ashley Holmes said, apart from the Wallendbeen PCA, there were no major incidents in the Young district.
“It was another quiet and successful weekend,” said Inspector Ashley Holmes.
“The last few years on the October long weekend have been very good.”
He said he was pleased that drivers were starting to understand and acknowledge safety on our roads.
“We are pleased the messages are finally getting through,” Inspector Holmes said.
Provisional data indicates that police attached to Operation Slowdown conducted 219,152 breath tests resulting in 262 drivers charged with drink-driving.
The number of drivers breath-tested was up from 203,645 tested in 2014, with 431 charged.
Across the state, police attended 234 major crashes, including one fatal.
A 50-year-old man died after his motorcycle left the road at Oallen, near Goulburn, about 11.30am on Sunday October 4.
“While we were pleased to see reductions in injury crashes and drink-driving, many of those detected had readings two, three and four times the legal limit, putting themselves and other road users at great risk.
Of concern to officers were the 5358 drivers detected speeding, up from 4696 in 2014.
Traffic and Highway Patrol Commander, Assistant Commissioner John Hartley, praised the actions of the majority of drivers.
“With such large numbers of people out and about over the weekend and people travelling from interstate, the actions of most drivers should be commended,” he said.
Assistant Commis-sioner Hartley said this was reflected in the reduction of people injured in crashes during the period, 116 this year compared to 174 in 2014.
