October 21, 2015
A special road safety enforcement program in the South Burnett conducted by police at the weekend has detected 21 drivers who tested positive to illegal drugs.
Police allege the drivers tested positive to cannabis, amphetamines, methamphetamines or a combination.
Senior Sergeant Duane Frank, from Kingaroy Police, said the youngest driver who tested positive was 18, and the oldest was 57.
“The average age was 33 which shows that this is not a young person’s offence,” he said.
Police pulled over and breath-tested 1200 drivers between Thursday, October 15, and Monday, October 19.
Snr Sgt Frank said three drink drivers were detected.
However, only about 200 drivers were tested for drugs, and of these 21 tested positive.
Three were female and 18 were male.
Snr Sgt Frank said of particular concern to police were:
- A 32-year-old man from NSW who was stopped near Ban Ban Springs and allegedly found to be in possession of a “reasonable quantity” of cannabis and drug utensils. He was passing through the South Burnett on a fishing trip.
- A 52-year-old woman from Esk who refused to provide a roadside specimen of saliva for testing. Her licence was immediately suspended.
- A 22-year-old woman from the South Burnett who was drug-tested twice over the weekend. She allegedly tested positive on Saturday, and then again on Sunday. Police will allege this is third time the woman – who is believed to be pregnant – has tested positive to drugs in a month.
Snr Sgt Frank said more than 130 other offences were also detected over the four-day operation, including speeding, licence-related issues, defective vehicles and various other offences.
Three vehicles were impounded due to offences where the driver at the time was an alleged repeat offender.
The police operation involved officers from local stations, as well as road policing officers from Dalby, Maryborough and Gympie; the Road Policing Taskforce from Brisbane, and the Roadside Drug Testing Unit from Brisbane.’
It was carried out in Blackbutt, Yarraman, Nanango, Kingaroy, Wondai and Murgon up to Gayndah.
“Overall, the number of detected drug drivers is a concern to police, and should be of great concern to the community,” Snr Sgt Frank said.
He said they had a disregard for their own safety, as well as a “blatant disregard” for other road users.
“Each of these drug users could have been involved in a crash which could have involved injury of death,” Snr Sgt Frank said.
Snr Sgt Frank warned that road safety enforcement operations like this would continue into the future, and that the technical capacity for police to detect drug drivers was increasing.
“Drug testing can now be done on the roadside and is a simple process,” he said.
“The police response is zero tolerance in line with community expectations to reduce the road toll.
“Police make no apologies for these operations. If people are going to take drugs and drive a motor vehicle, the chances of detection are becoming much greater.”
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A 21-year-old woman has been charged with drink-driving after she allegedly recorded a BAC of .085 after a random breath test in Fisher Street, Kingaroy, at midnight on Tuesday.
