One in six drivers tested for drugs during a road blitz in the northern rivers last weekend returned positive results, according to police.
NSW Police have released the results of Operation Mega Drive 2, which they say targeted fatal and injury crashes, and impaired drivers.
Northern Region Traffic and Highway Patrol Command officers conducted 4,020 random breath tests and 622 random drug tests, which resulted in 22 drink drive offences and 104 positive secondary drug tests.
Police said further action may be undertaken against the drug-impaired drivers following analysis results.
The results come as the NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Police Troy Grant and Minister for Roads Duncan Gay yesterday launched the government’s first ever drug driving campaign to warn motorists that if you take drugs and drive, you will be caught.
‘Today we stand alongside NSW Police, NRMA and our road safety experts to launch the next step in our fight against drug driving,’ Deputy Premier Troy Grant said.
‘From today you’ll start to hear a lot more about Mobile Drug Testing – what we call, MDT.
‘The simple message every driver needs to hear from this campaign is that if you take drugs and drive, the boys in blue are going to catch you.
‘If you’re pulled over by Police, it could be for a random breath test for alcohol, a mobile drug test, or both – so don’t be surprised when it happens to you.”
So far this year, 1 in 10 MDTs have come back positive, compared to around 1 in 300 positive Random Breath Tests for alcohol.
The NSW Government is tripling Mobile Drug Testing to 97,000 tests each year by 2017 to help combat these statistics.
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