Bathurst police: Speeding driver blows .157 during Easter blitz

Officers were out in force for five days from Thursday, April 9 as part of Operation Tortoise, which monitors behaviour on roads across NSW.

Bathurst Highway Patrol's Sergeant Ryan Baird said police in the region conducted a total of 1046 random breath tests over the five days.

Four people were charged with drink-driving, including one in the high range.

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"On Sunday, April 12, Bathurst Highway Patrol stopped a 61-year-old Bathurst man for a speeding offence," Sgt Baird said.

"He returned a positive result, was arrested and conveyed to Bathurst Police Station. He had a positive breath test and returned a reading of 0.157."

The man will appear court later this year.

Another driver stopped in George Street on Sunday returned a reading of 0.149 while, in Lithgow, three drivers returned positive readings to methamphetamine.

Given the COVID-19 restrictions that are currently in place, it is hard to compare last weekend's Operation Tortoise to previous years because there were fewer people on the road.

"Highway Patrol are now focusing more on intensive mobile RBTs rather than stationary, so the community can expect to see more Highway Patrol out there conducting random breath testing stops, rather than conducting stationary breath testing as we normally do," Sgt Baird said.

Although there were some incidents over the long weekend, Sgt Baird said he was pleased with the overall behaviour of motorists in the Bathurst area.

"Overall, Operation Tortoise was a good result," he said.

"It's hard to compare to previous years because this hasn't happened before with the pandemic, but we're quite happy with the results.

"We did 1046 breath tests and there were four PCAs, which is a good ratio."