The Roadside Drug Testing Unit near Nanango at the weekend (Photo: QPS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOctober 21, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\nA 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.<\/p>\n
Police allege the drivers tested positive to cannabis, amphetamines, methamphetamines or a combination.<\/p>\n
Senior Sergeant Duane Frank, from Kingaroy Police, said the youngest driver who tested positive was 18, and the oldest was 57.<\/p>\n
“The average age was 33 which shows that this is not a young person’s offence,” he said.<\/p>\n
Police pulled over and breath-tested 1200 drivers between Thursday, October 15, and Monday, October 19.<\/p>\n
Snr Sgt Frank said three drink drivers were detected.<\/p>\n
However, only about 200 drivers were tested for drugs, and of these 21 tested positive.<\/strong><\/p>\nThree were female and 18 were male.<\/p>\n
Snr Sgt Frank said of particular concern to police were:<\/p>\n
\nA 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\nA 52-year-old woman from Esk who refused to provide a roadside specimen of saliva for testing.\u00a0 Her licence was immediately suspended.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\nA 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.\u00a0 Police will allege this is third time the woman – who is believed to be pregnant – has tested positive to drugs in a month.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nSnr 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.<\/p>\n
Three vehicles were impounded due to offences where the driver at the time was an alleged repeat offender.<\/p>\n
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.’<\/p>\n
It was carried out in Blackbutt, Yarraman, Nanango, Kingaroy, Wondai and Murgon up to Gayndah.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
He said they had a disregard for their own safety, as well as a “blatant disregard” for other road users.<\/p>\n
“Each of these drug users could have been involved in a crash which could have involved injury of death,” Snr Sgt Frank said.<\/strong><\/p>\nSnr 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.<\/p>\n
“Drug testing can now be done on the roadside and is a simple process,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The police response is zero tolerance in line with community expectations to reduce the road toll.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
* * *<\/strong><\/p>\nA 21-year-old woman\u00a0 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.<\/p>\nSenior Sergeant Duane Frank, from Kingaroy Police, with the new mobile drug detection units that can be carried in any police car<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A road safety blitz conducted by police at the weekend detected 21 drug drivers in just 200 tests<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":124561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,24],"tags":[1132],"yoast_head":"\n
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