Licence suspended on alcohol charge

A Killcare Heights woman was charged with high range prescribed concentration of alcohol offence and her licence immediately suspended in an incident over the Easter long weekend.

The charge was among several to take place across the local area as part of Operation Tortoise, conducted by police from the Brisbane Water Local Area Command Traffic Services.

Senior Constable Dave O'Shea said that at around 11pm on Friday, April 4, the 38-year-old woman was driving along Araluen Rd, Hardys Bay, and collided with a parked vehicle.

Sen Const O'Shea said her vehicle then spun 180 degrees to the wrong side of the road and collided with a vehicle in oncoming traffic.

"She was subjected to a roadside breath test which showed a positive reading and later underwent a breath analysis at Woy Woy Police Station which gave a reading of 0.203," Sen Const O'Shea said.

"She was charged with high range PCA and her licence was suspended immediately.

"She will appear at Woy Woy Court at a later date."

Operation tortoise concluded at midnight on Monday, April 9.

Sen Const O'Shea said that, in the five days of the operation, police from the Brisbane Water command breath tested 1112 people and, of those, 10 were arrested and charged with drink driving offences.

"There were a further 22 traffic charges proffered against offenders," Sen Const O'Shea said.

"There were 47 infringements notices issued for 'exceed speed' offences and 288 camera frames were exposed.

"A further 158 infringement notices were issued for other traffic offences.

"There were 21 crashes in total for the five days, eight of these involved injuries to people and three involved alcohol.

"Overall we experienced a 120 per cent reduction in the number of positive tests while only increasing the number of people tested by two per cent.

"However alcohol crashes increased by 67 per cent and injury crashes by 88 per cent.

"These are obviously worrying trends which we are investigating now to determine which is the best course of action."

Press release, 10 Apr 2007 Dave O'Shea, NSW Police