Police say it was only through their good work that a serious crash was avoided north of Byron Saturday night.
Officers say they started getting calls shortly before midnight about a car speeding north in the southbound lanes of the Pacific Motorway from Yelgun.
They took the southbound entrance to the Pacific Motorway at Cudgera Creek just as the offending car- a red Mazda 3 – passed by in the opposite direction on the same side of the highway at 110km/hr.
Police say they made a u-turn onto the northbound lanes and put out an alert via police radio.
They tried to warn drivers heading south of the danger by flashing their headlights at them, before setting up a detour for southbound traffic, north of where the Mazda 3 was.
But the man driving the Mazda 3 refused to stop when police told him to, so they put spikes on the road to deflate his tyres.
He then stopped about 50m before reaching the spikes and police took him out of the car.
They say the driver was so intoxicated he couldn’t stand or speak.
He returned a roadside reading of 0.224 – more than four times the legal limit – while another test later showed a slightly lower reading of 0.193.
Police say they laid charges and gave the man notice to appear in court.
So far, officers haven’t yet said where or when the man will appear in court – courts are closed over the long weekend – and haven’t shared any identifying information about him.
Brunswick Heads drink-driver crashes outside gelato shop
It was the second night in a row police in the Byron area arrested a drunk driver.
A 48-yr old Brunswick Heads man is due to face the Byron Bay Local court on 28 October after a police breath test Friday evening showed he was more than three times over the legal limit – 0.159 – for alcohol content when driving.
Police say the man was unlicensed but driving a gold Holden Acclaim Station wagon north east along Brunswick Terrace around 6.40pm Friday when he crashed into bollards in front of a gelato shop.
Luckily, nobody was hurt.
The car was reportedly unregistered and uninsured.
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