ACT Police will be cracking down on drink driving in Canberra over the next three months, after statistics showed a high number of repeat offenders.
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More than 100,000 random breath tests have been conducted so far in 2013, with 1066 drivers returning a result which was over the limit.
Of those, 343 were repeat offenders who just hadn’t got the message.
Officer in Charge of Traffic Operations Ron Anderson said the new police blitz would target those whose behaviour put their fellow road users in danger.
‘‘It has huge implications for our community, it increase the risk of injury and death on our roads and that’s something we want to try and prevent,’’ he said.
Multiple agencies in the ACT government will be involved in the operation, which is aimed at removing impaired drivers from our roads.
Mr Anderson said one of the hardest things a police officer can do is deliver a death message to a family.
‘‘It’s even harder when we know that it’s been caused by someone who has been drinking and driving, and that’s completely preventable,’’ he said.
One probationary driver was caught driving drunk after the Melbourne Cup celebrations yesterday with a blood alcohol reading of 0.099. The legal limit for P-platers is 0.00.
Director of the Shock Trauma Service at Canberra Hospital Dr Ailene Fitzgerald said the new blitz was absolutely necessary, given the tragic consequences of drink driving.
‘‘I’ve had to deliver bad news for many years now and you always think about how that would be if the roles were reversed. It’s a very difficult traumatic thing for everybody concerned,’’ she said.
A study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in 2010 revealed that 22.6 per cent of Canberra males admitting to drinking under the influence, as well as around 8 per cent of women.
Dr Fitzgerald said that drivers had to know that serious injuries are not just something that happens to other people.
‘‘Most of my patients that have long terms disabilities, if you go back and talk to them they would have been one of those people who thought, ‘This will never happen to me’,’’ she said.
Mr Anderson said the ACT drivers who do the wrong thing will not get away with it this holiday season.
‘‘We’ll be undertaking [breath testing] in all streets,’’ he said. ‘‘You won’t be able to hide in back streets, or try to get home without being detected. You’ll be stopped anywhere, anytime.’’