AAP

NSW police launch drink-drive crackdown

AAP November 4, 2009, 2:31 pm

More than 100,000 motorists across NSW will be breath tested in a three-day crackdown on drink driving.

Operation Drink Drive II begins at 12am (AEDT) on Thursday, with police hoping to curb the state's worsening road toll for 2009.

There have been 401 people killed on NSW roads so far this year, 92 more than for the same time in 2008.

About 20 per cent of the state's fatal crashes are alcohol-related, NSW Police Minister Michael Daley said.

"This year's road toll continues to get worse and worse," he said in a statement on Wednesday.

"It beggars belief that there are still idiots out there who still don't get the message that it's not acceptable to drink and drive."

Mr Daley said random breath tests would be conducted across the state during the three-day blitz, and warned that motorists should expect to get stopped by police.

Police will especially target the state's top drink drive hot spots, headed by Sydney's northern beaches, Botany Bay, and Sutherland in the city's south.

"Police are determined to help save as many lives as they can and will be out on the roads in force from tomorrow to catch drivers doing the wrong thing," Mr Daley said.

"Police will be out in force everywhere. We want people who insist on drink driving to be paranoid about getting caught."

Police Traffic Service Commander, Assistant Commissioner John Hartley, says people who drink and drive selfishly put other lives at risk.

"There are no excuses," he said.

"It is an extraordinarily selfish thing to do. You are risking your own safety and that of others.

"Driving whilst drunk is a crime and if you do it, you're a criminal. You will be locked up."

Operation Drink Drive II will wind up at 11.59pm on Saturday.

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