BATHURST has recorded the second highest number of drug affected motorists in the Central West, new data shows.
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In 2015, NSW Police increased the number of roadside drug driving tests across the state and, correspondingly the number of detections increased.
In Bathurst, 54 motorists were caught with an illicit drug in their system during the 12 month period.
Despite Bathurst’s ranking as second in the region, Orange led the way by a significant margin with 241 motorists caught in the same period.
Traffic and Highway Patrol Command Acting Senior Sergeant Peter Foran said police have the ability to test for a number of illicit drugs.
“In the last 12 to 18 months, the equipment that we use to test drug driving motorists has been rolled out a lot more,” he said.
“All motorists need to be aware that our capacity for drug driving testing is the same as drink driving.”
Drug testing motorists is a three-stop process which begins with a roadside saliva sample.
If this test gives an indication illicit drugs may be present, the motorist must undergo a secondary test.
All secondary test samples are then sent to a laboratory for further testing.
“No formal action is taken until the lab results are received,” Acting Senior Sergeant Foran said.
Much of the region’s secondary testing is conducted in Orange, and he said this could account for the high number of positive tests recorded for that local government area.
Acting Senior Sergeant Foran said drugs influence a motorist’s behaviour and police are working to reduce the number road collisions.
Other Central West local government areas to feature in the data were Dubbo with 49 motorists caught drug driving, Mid Western (45), Lithgow (33), Forbes (31), Cowra (30), Cabonne (27), Parkes (21), Blayney (6), Wellington (4) and Oberon (0).
Orange was among locations which recorded the highest number of detections in NSW, others included Richmond-Tweed, Tamworth, Wagga Wagga, Newcastle and parts of western Sydney.
In 2015, NSW Police commenced legal action against 8253 people for driving with an illicit drug in their system. This is an increase of 252 per cent, up from 2347 recorded in 2014.
Of the 8253 persons proceeded against by police in 2015, 92 per cent of people were charged with their first drug driving offence, while 8.5 per cent of people were charged with a second or subsequent offence.
