A 25-YEAR-OLD Kelso woman was among the nearly 200 people charged with drink-driving in NSW over the long weekend.
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Police stopped the woman at the intersection of the Great Western Highway and View Street around 9.30pm on Saturday for driving with a blown-out tyre.
Officers spoke with the female driver, who said she had no knowledge of the tyre problem, but admitted the car was hard to drive.
After the woman returned a positive breath test she was arrested and taken to Bathurst Police Station, where she returned a breath-analysis reading of 0.195.
After disputing the result, she was taken to hospital for blood testing, which confirmed the high reading.
Chifley Local Area Command Acting Inspector Craig Spice said the woman was charged with high-range PCA and issued with a court attendance notice for May 26.
He said police across the Chifley LAC conducted 4000 random breath tests during Operation Tortoise, which ran from 12.01am on Thursday to 11.59pm last night.
Across the state, 236,093 breath tests were conducted in the first four days of the operation, resulting in 191 drink-driving charges, of which 30 occurred in the Western Region.
Police conducted 17,998 breath tests between Thursday and Sunday in the Western Region, issued 436 speed infringement notices and 405 traffic infringement notices. There were also 37 major crashes and 17 injuries.
Acting Inspector Spice said yesterday morning that despite a couple of isolated incidents, drivers across the Bathurst region had been good.
“On the whole, many people have been well- behaved. Unfortunately, though, some people continue to drink-drive and speed.”
Acting Inspector Spice said police stopped a 38-year-old Lithgow women allegedly travelling at 130 kilometres an hour in a 100 kilometre zone at Raglan at around 8.30am on Saturday.
He said when police spoke with the woman about her speeding, they found her driver’s licence had been cancelled and she had been previously dealt with on Friday.
He said the woman was charged and issued with a court attendance notice for driving with a cancelled licence and speeding.
Acting Inspector Spice said that in Oberon, a 20-year-old Oberon man was charged after he returned a reading of 0.072 around 12.20am on Saturday, while a 40-year-old Oberon man was charged with high-range PCA after he was involved in a collision around 6pm on Friday.
The 40-year-old man allegedly failed to give way when exiting Ross Street and collided with a vehicle travelling west on Oberon Street.
Although no one was injured, he was arrested and taken to Oberon Police Station, where he was charged and had his licence suspended after he recorded 0.196.
Meanwhile, a 32-year-old Meadow Flat man recorded a breath analysis reading of 0.135 after he was stopped by police in Lithgow around 5.15pm on Saturday for driving without his headlights on.
Acting Inspector Spice said motorists needed to continue to be vigilant when driving and said police would be out in force again for operation Go Slow over the Anzac Day long weekend.