More than 5,000 people caught drink driving in Queensland so far this year
Queensland police are catching an average of more than 40 people a day drink driving, as the state continues to ramp up its random breath testing regime following a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Superintendent Garrath Channells from the road policing command said there had been 5,233 drink driving offences to the beginning of April this year.
"About 40 Queenslanders have been detected for various drink driving matters everyday on our roads," he told ABC Radio Brisbane.
"They place themselves in a situation and more importantly, they are putting others on the road at risk."
Police have undertaken more than 740,000 breath tests across the state since January 1, and are on track to conduct more than 2 million tests in a year for the first time since the pandemic.
Despite increased testing every year since 2020, the amount of people being caught drink driving has been in decline.
In 2022, just over 17,059 drink drivers were detected by police.
In 2023, that number was 15,860, and in 2024 it was 15,364.
Drivers with a blood alcohol level between 0.05 and 0.10 were the most commonly detected each of those years.
Detective Superintendent Channells said people "intending to have a few" should always organise a way home that doesn't involve driving.
"Either have a designated driver who is safe to get you and your friends home or have an alternate plan," he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
40 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Teen dies in e-scooter crash at Mareeba, far north Queensland
A young man has died after falling from an electric scooter in regional Queensland. The crash tragic accident happened in the town of Mareeba, near Cairns, on Tuesday night. A police spokeswoman told NewsWire, as of late Wednesday morning, the deceased male was yet to be identified. Local media reports it is a teenager who has died. The spokeswoman said the police believe there were no other vehicles involved in the crash. The forensic crash unit is investigating. The tragic incident is the latest electric scooter crash to rock the country and follows the release of a report last week from doctors and researchers in Queensland highlighting the 'significant risk' to children from e-scooters. The report, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, analysed 176 child e-scooter injury cases that presented to Sunshine Coast University Hospital between January 2023 and December 2024. The research found 71 per cent of cases were male, falls accounted for 78 per cent of crashes, while 13 per cent involved motor vehicles. Helmet noncompliance was documented in 42 per cent of the presentations, 12 per cent involved doubling, and 36 per cent exceeded the 25km/h speed limit. Further, fractures occurred in 37 per cent of cases, 18 per cent required computerised tomography scans and 11 per cent sustained life-threatening or potentially life-threatening injuries.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
N.Ireland town hit by second night of unrest
Violence flared for a second night Tuesday in a Northern Irish town after "racially motivated" attacks sparked by the arrest of two teenagers accused of attempting to rape a young girl. Hundreds of protestors, many of them masked, took to the streets of Ballymena, throwing petrol bombs, bottles and masonry as police responded with water cannon, an AFP journalist said. There was a heavy police presence in one area of the town, some 30 miles (48 kilometres) northwest of Belfast, as the protesters set fire to a car and barricades. Police also fired plastic baton rounds to disperse the crowds, an AFP journalist saw. Later as night fell, crowds began to disperse in Ballymena although smaller groups still milled around the town centre. And local media reported that protestors were also blocking roads in Belfast. The unrest first erupted Monday night after a vigil in a neighbourhood where an alleged serious sexual assault happened on Saturday. "This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police," Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said Tuesday. He told a press conference: "It was racist thuggery, pure and simply, and any attempt to justify it or explain it as something else is misplaced." Tensions in the town, which has a large migrant population, remained high throughout the day on Tuesday, as residents described the scenes as "terrifying" and told AFP those involved were targeting "foreigners". Two teenage boys, charged by police with the attempted rape of a teenage girl, had appeared in court Monday, where they asked for a Romanian interpreter, local media reports said. The trouble began when masked people "broke away from the vigil and began to build barricades, stockpiling missiles and attacking properties", police said. Houses and businesses were attacked, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said, adding it was investigating "hate attacks". Security forces also came under "sustained attack" with petrol bombs, fireworks and bricks thrown by rioters, injuring 15 officers including some who required hospital treatment, according to the force. One 29-year-old man was arrested and charged with riotous behaviour, disorderly behaviour, attempted criminal damage and resisting police. Four houses were damaged by fire, and windows and doors of homes and businesses smashed. Cornelia Albu, 52, a Romanian migrant and mother-of-two who lives opposite a house targeted in the attacks, said her family had been "very scared". "Last night it was crazy because too many people came here and tried to put the house on fire," Albu, who works in a factory, told AFP. She said she would now have to move, but was worried she would not find another place to live because she was Romanian. - 'Scared as hell' - A 22-year-old woman who lives next door to a burnt-out house in the same Clonavon neighbourhood said the night had been "terrifying". "People were going after foreigners, whoever they were, or how innocent they were," the woman, who did not want to share her name for security reasons, told AFP. "But there were local people indoors down the street scared as hell." Northern Ireland saw racism-fuelled disorder in August after similar riots in English towns and cities triggered by the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport, northwest England. According to Mark, 24, who did not share his last name, the alleged rape on the weekend was "just a spark". "The foreigners around here don't show respect to the locals, they come here, don't integrate," said Mark. Another man was halfway up a ladder, hanging a Union Jack flag in front of his house as a "precaution -- so people know it's not a foreigner living here". "Ballymena has a large migrant population, a lot of people actually work in the town and provide excellent work," Mayor Jackson Minford told AFP. "Last night unfortunately has probably scared a lot of people. We are actively working to identify those responsible and bring them to justice," said Henderson. A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the "disorder" in Ballymena was "very concerning".
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
NSW Police charge Merrylands teenage boy with alleged arson attack on Sydney barber shop
Shock footage has emerged of the moment an alleged teen arsonist set himself on fire while attacking a barber shop in Sydney last month. CCTV shows the boy catching fire after appearing to light up the shop. He is dressed in all black and uses a red jerry can to fuel the blaze. Footage shows him rolling in bushes to extinguish the fire before fleeing the scene. Emergency services responded to the incident at the Merrylands barber shop on May 8 just after 4am following reports of the fire. The blaze was brought under control by NSW Fire and Rescue NSW, however the building was damaged in the blaze. The teenager is believed to have fled in a silver Hyundai i30, which had been pursued earlier that night in a chase across Sydney's western suburbs. Police allege the barber shop has links to a high profile organised crime network. The incident was investigated by Taskforce Falcon – an operation focused on suppressing violent crime in Sydney's metropolitan areas – who seized the allegedly stolen Hyundai. Police searched the vehicle and found jerry cans full of accelerant and bleach. The police arrested a 16-year-old boy just after 10am on Tuesday and he is now facing arson charges. Investigations remain ongoing.
