Hungover, drunken drivers caught by police on the way to weekend sport on the rise
POLICE are catching more drunken drivers early on Saturdays and Sundays than on some nights during week as motorists take a dangerous “morning after” gamble.
NSW
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POLICE are catching more drunken drivers early on Saturdays and Sundays than on some nights during week as motorists take a dangerous “morning after” gamble.
The shocking figures were revealed as the state’s top traffic cop, Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy, branded parents taking their kids to sport while over the limit as “criminals”.
Police figures from last year show that on Mondays between 6pm and midnight, 437 drivers were caught drink driving over the 12-month period.
In the same time on Tuesdays there were 512 drivers caught and on Wednesdays that number was 623.
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But more drunken drivers were caught on a Sunday between 6am and midday than any of those nights, with 640 caught drink driving in those hours over the year.
Another 564 were caught between those hours on a Saturday morning. Assistant Commissioner Corboy, head of the state’s Traffic and Highway Patrol Command, said it had to stop.
“These drivers are irresponsible because they know the rules and ignore them,” he said yesterday.
He said police were targeting Saturday and Sunday morning drivers because they follow traditionally big drinking nights.
“They have been drinking late or until early in the morning and they think they are all right to drive,” Mr Corby said.
He said that “everyone knew” three drinks in the first hour and then one each hour after that took a driver over the limit, with another hour for every drink to get blood alcohol back to zero.
“So if you have 10 drinks the night before, it’s going to take 10 hours to get it all out of your system,” he said.
A really heavy night’s drinking can put someone over the limit for most of the following day and taking showers, drinking black coffee or water or eating made no difference.
“None of that works. The only thing that gets alcohol out of your system is time,” Assistant Commissioner Corboy said.
Most of the drivers caught on Saturday and Sunday mornings blow low- or middle-range, indicating it was a hangover.
The highest-profile “morning after” motorist, St George Illawarra Dragons coach Paul McGregor, “just wants to put it all behind him” and was still embarrassed, a source said yesterday.
McGregor, 50, was arrested after failing a random breath test in Wollongong at 8.47am on one Sunday in April 2016 on his way to Dragons training and returned a low-range blood alcohol reading of 0.063. He was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond.
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