BY SARAH  BARONOWSKI

Despite the wet weather, police are happy to report it was a fatality-free long weekend with no road-related deaths across the Hunter and Northern Region.

However, there were still a number of serious incidents in the area including the pursuit and arrest of a 14-year-old Cessnock boy who was caught driving a stolen car without a license in Swansea.

At least four deaths have also been recorded elsewhere across the state.

Chief Inspector, Bruce McGreggor says while incidents like these are concerning, most drivers within the Hunter area remained safe over the weekend.

“I would say that we were happy with results, that motorists did drive responsibly. We didn’t have any fatals so that was a blessing and I’d like to congratulate my staff and the police throughout the region for their vigilant efforts to get the results that we’ve achieved.”

The Chief Inspector says police were kept busy dealing with a number of small traffic infringements but things had improved in comparison to last year.

“We undertook 8842 breath tests during the operation and 40 PCA’s were detected. There were 393 speeding infringements issued along with another 622 infringements and of those, 20 were for restraint seat belt and offences and 18 were for mobile phone offences,” he said.

“Overall our results are down on last year but I would put that down to the adverse weather that prevailed during the weekend.

“But I’d like to think that motorists were taking our messages to drive responsibly and safely.”



[Image: NRMA]