Drink blitz hits beach towns

Ettalong Beach and Umina Beach will be two of several areas under close watch during the Drink Drive II operation to be held from November 1 through to November 8.

Senior Constable Dave O'Shea of Brisbane Water LAC Traffic Services said alcohol crash hotspots were developing in the areas including Ettalong Beach and Umina Beach, and therefore "efforts will most certainly be aimed in those areas".

From October 25, Brisbane Water Highway Patrol would be launching a concerted Drink Drive enforcement lasting over several weeks.

The program will begin with Operation Fewova which would operate until October 28, followed by the local component of Operation Drink Drive II, commencing on November 1 and continuing through to November 8.

This would be followed by the State-sponsored segment of Operation Drink Drive II which would commence on November 8 and runs through to November 11.

Senior Constable O'Shea said all police within the Brisbane Water Command would be tasked to target areas identified as alcohol crash locations and areas where high number of drivers were detected under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

He said that specific venues where numbers of alcohol impaired drivers were found to come from would also be targeted.

"Analysis of current data shows that about 10 per cent of all crashes and 12 per cent of all traffic matters involve alcohol," Senior Constable O'Shea said.

"Currently owing to a concentrated enforcement by highway patrol and Gosford district police, we have been able to achieve a significant reduction in the number of alcohol-related crashes occurring within this command.

"We believe this has also been aided by heavy local advertising by council's road safety officer and the RTA as well as cooperation by the motoring public who identify with the advertisement and are concerned that this crime has the potential to hurt all members of the community."

Senior Constable O'Shea said specific searches indicated that the vast majority of offenders arrested following alcohol related crashes had mostly come from private premises, not licensed venues, and therefore stationary and mobile RBT would be tailored to direct their efforts in these directions.

During their Drink Drive operation last year, police from the Brisbane Water Local Area Command breath tested 1240 people in the three-day operation.

Of that number, only eight were arrested and charged with drink driving offences.

Press release, 23 Oct 2007 Dave O'Shea, Brisbane Water LAC Traffic Services