A MAN has allegedly registered a blood alcohol reading of 0.216 after police found him unable to get out of his car, wedged on a nature strip with its engine still revving.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Nelson Bay man, 38, was arrested on Gowrie Avenue at Nelson Bay just before midnight on Thursday after residents reported the driver appeared drunk.
He was charged with high-range drink driving, had his licence suspended and will face Raymond Terrace Local Court next month.
The arrest was one of several across the Hunter on the first full day of Operation Tortoise, the Easter long weekend police blitz which is also the 20th anniversary of double demerit points.
It didn’t stop 280 motorists across the Northern Region being handed a speeding ticket and a further 340 given other traffic infringements, including 17 for failing to wear a seat belt.
The death of a 27-year-old Windale concreter at Brandy Hill on Thursday morning was the state’s first fatality during Operation Tortoise.
The man was on his way to help his father at a job site when it is believed he drove through a stop sign on Clarence Town Road and was hit by a four-wheel drive.
When he failed to show up at work, his father went searching and drove across the crash scene.
The man’s death was the 16th on Hunter roads this year, up from 11 for the same time last year.
A second fatality occurred at Brocklesby, near Albury, on Thursday night when a 38-year-old was killed in a single-vehicle crash.
And the Hunter Westpac rescue helicopter was called to fly a female trailbike rider to John Hunter Hospital after she suffered serious lower leg fractures on a Putty Road property south of Bulga.
Emergency services were also kept busy on Friday along sections of the the M1 Pacific Motorway and Pacific Highway with several multi-car pile-ups on the Central Coast and at Raymond Terrace.
Operation Tortoise continues until Monday night.
Police have warned there would be more officers on the roads targeting drivers for dangerous behaviour, including speeding, drink and drug-driving, mobile phone use, and not wearing seatbelts.
Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy, of the traffic and highway patrol command, said there had been too many lives lost on the state’s roads this year, and many tragedies could have been avoided.
“It is the 20th anniversary since double-demerits began and they have proven to be effective,’’ Mr Corboy said.
“Sadly drivers continue to ignore warnings, putting their own lives, their passenger’s lives and the lives of other road uses at great risk of death or injury.’’
