NT police to launch all out blitz on dangerous drivers over Easter weekend

The Acting Police Commissioner says NT road users can “expect to be stopped” as police brace for three long weekends in a row.

NT's acting police commissioner Martin Dole. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Territory police will be cracking down on the bad eggs on Territory roads over Easter and the following long weekend.

Motorists have been warned that there will be a large police presence with a blitz on bad driving behaviour.

Police will kick their road blitz off today with a major advertising campaign and police out on the roads in force.

Acting Commissioner Martin Dole said long weekends were traditionally a time of high activity for police.

“We always see crashes on long weekends, particularly the Easter weekend,” Mr Dole said.

“You’re going to see an increased presence of our road policing division out across the Territory.

“That’s everywhere from Darwin right through the middle of the Territory right down to Central Australia.”

NT Police will be out in force over the Easter weekend.

Mr Dole said there was a “lot of onus” on road users to slow down and be safe on the roads, and that police would be increasing their presence in rural areas. He said motorists should expect top see large scale RBTs.

“You’ll see police checking on people’s speed, so there’ll be increased police activity.

“If you’re driving expect to be stopped and pulled over by the police.”

Mr Dole’s warning comes as the nation’s peak motoring body launched its own campaign calling on major political parties to release road safety data, as new data shows the Lingiari electorate leads the country in road deaths.

The campaign by the Australian Automobile Association, called My Safety Counts, launched to line up with the federal election.

Data released by the AAA shows the Lingiari electorate in the NT led the country in road deaths in 2024, with 46 losing their lives.

Australian Automobile Association managing director Michael Bradley. Picture: supplied

AAA managing director Michael Bradley said almost 500,000km of roads across Australia had been subject to independent safety audits as part of the Australian Road Assessment program (AusRAP), which uses a five-star rating system, but that none of the data had been made available to the public.

“Transparent use of AusRAP ratings when governments fund road projects would give Australians a clearer picture of the state of our roads and also show whether funding is being directed to road projects which can save the most lives,’’ Mr Bradley said.

Mr Bradley said AusRAP took factors including traffic volume and engineering attributes into consideration when producing its star ratings.

“It would save lives and also enable Australians to make their own assessments of government funding decisions.”

Originally published as NT police to launch all out blitz on dangerous drivers over Easter weekend