Easter may have well and truly come and gone, but in New South Wales the lingering concern over drug driving and the belief by some that roadside drug testing in NSW needs to increase, is still garnering media attention.
According to a report on 2GB, while drink driving remains a concern, it’s drug driving that is particularly worrying.
Over Easter, despite a major presence by NSW police on the roads and double demerit points in place, many NSW drivers still fell afoul of alcohol and drug testing. Eight people lost their lives over the four-day period in the state.
During the Easter period, 295 positive drink driving infringements were handed out by NSW Police. While this is a lot and too many, the good news is that it came from 232,092 roadside breath tests. This represents 0.1 percent of those tested.
The news for roadside drug testing in NSW isn’t as good, however. Over the Easter period, 863 positive drug infringements were recorded from 17,256 roadside drug tests. That’s a staggering five percent of those tested.
According to the 2GB report, it’s clear that drug driving is on the increase and the amount of roadside drug testing needs to increase. The report highlights recent drug seizures in NSW as an example of the drug issue and to highlight the need for more roadside drug testing.
While this message won’t please some, particularly those that see roadside drug testing in NSW as revenue raising, there is other evidence to support an increase in tests. Most notable is the report from Transport of NSW that reveals around 24 per cent of fatalities each year on NSW roads involves a driver with illegal drugs in their system.
This equates to around 79 lives lost, each year, in NSW alone. That’s 79 lives lost, 79 families without husbands, wives, sons, daughters and siblings and a heck of a lot of lives changed forever.
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The Easter period in NSW has again highlighted that while drink driving is still a concern, drug driving is the bigger worry. This has prompted some to call for more drug testing in NSW. Credit Highway Patrol Images https://www.flickr.com/photos/special-fx/8615908676/
