Northern Territory Police would like to congratulate the majority of the 10,563 drivers tested for displaying responsible and considerate driving habits on Territory roads over the Christmas and New Year period.
From December 23rd until January 3rd Police and the Emergency Services maintained a high profile presence on our roads as part of a national campaign promoting road safety over the traditionally busy festive season.
One fatality was recorded in the Northern Territory, down from three for the same time last year.
78 drivers chose to ignore all warnings and were charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, this represented 0.7% of all drivers tested. One 36 year-old man was arrested on January 1st highlighting Police frustrations in trying to keep drunk drivers off the road. He returned a breath test of .127%. Further checks revealed that the driver had previously been convicted of drink driving and dangerous driving causing death. More perplexing was the fact his female passenger was a licensed driver and had a zero alcohol reading.
818 drivers were booked for speeding and a further 629 received various other traffic infringement notices during the ‘zero tolerance’ campaign.
Five drivers had their cars impounded under anti-hooning regulations.
123 drivers were found to have expired or suspended licences and 178 cars were unregistered.
5 drivers failed drug tests.
The most disappointing night for Police was the last day of 2011 when 17 of 1331 drivers tested across the Territory were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, 69 received traffic infringement notices, 32 were booked for speeding, 13 had licence offences and one car was impounded.
Superintendent John Emeny from the Traffic Operations Division said that overall, Police were happy with the results.
“The high-profile presence and excellent work of Police during the operation has seen the Northern Territory enjoy a relatively safe period, of course much of the credit must go to the public and Police thank all the responsible drivers who were free to continue after being tested.”
“Tempering this is the unacceptable number of unregistered and uninsured cars on the roads, it is of concern that near on 2 in every 100 cars tested (1.7%) were found to be unregistered. Road users should take this as a warning that this will not be tolerated.” Superintendent Emeny concluded.
