A man caught literally drinking while driving, speeding unlicensed and unregistered in Newcastle is just one of the instances of bad behaviour police have reported from the Australia Day Double Demerits period.
More than 12,000 drivers were charged or fined during the high-visibility Operation Australia Day 2023, that started last Wednesday and concluded at midnight on Sunday. Double demerit points were applied for the duration of the operation for speeding, mobile phone, seatbelt, and motorcycle helmet offences.
In the northern region including Newcastle, there were more 41 restraint infringements handed out by police, 55 mobile phone infringements, 1163 drivers were caught speeding, there were 93 positive drug drive detections and 100 people were caught drink driving.
One of those was a 19-year-old man in Newcastle East.
He was nabbed driving down Wharf Road at 6:30am on Saturday allegedly doing 60km/hr in a 30km/hr zone – while drinking a beer.
Worse still for the teenager, checks revealed his licence was suspended and the vehicle’s registration had expired.
A breath analysis was conducted and returned an alleged reading of 0.127. The man was fined for speeding, consume alcohol while driving, drive an unregistered/uninsured vehicle, and issued with a court attendance notice for mid-range PCA and drive while suspended.
He’s due to appear in Newcastle Local Court in February.