Easter long weekend: Tamworth highway patrol police catch dangerous drivers and dish out 116 fines

A learner driver with a passenger dangling out of the sunroof; a Sydneysider who floored it at 156km/h; and another who led Tamworth police on a wild goose chase through town were just some of the bad behaviour officers encountered.

Police worked extra hours on the long weekend and Tamworth Highway Patrol Sergeant Carter Knyvett said even he was shocked at some of the offences.

"Probably the most disgraceful example was a driver from Sydney going 156km per hour in a 100-zone," he said.

"So as a consequence he got a $2520 fine, his licence was suspended for six months and the registration of his vehicle was cancelled for three months."

Double demerits started on Thursday and since then three people have been injured in collisions.

Sergeant Knyvett said fortunately none of those were fatal.

"It doesn't take much of an error to have lifelong consequences for all concerned; the drivers, the passengers, the families of those people," he said.

"It's well publicised that there are double demerits on the Easter long weekend and other road safety critical periods and people continue to speed, drink-drive and drive distracted or not wear seatbelts.

"These are basic offences that we keep repeating but every long weekend or holiday we keep catching people for it."

On Monday morning, police were led on a short pursuit through Tamworth after a disqualified driver failed to stop for an RBT on Scott Road.

The pursuit was called off due to the risk to public safety, but police later nabbed the 54-year-old driver who remains bail refused after he was charged with driving in a manner dangerous, causing a police pursuit, and driving disqualified.

Between highway patrol and general duties police, a total of five drink-driving offences were detected, one of which was high-range, two were mid-range and one was a learner driver.

Two positive drug-tests were also recorded at the weekend and 116 infringement notices handed out for anything from a lack of seatbelts to speeding.

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Sergeant Knyvett said the increase in offences were likely due to coastal getaways being hard to reach.

"This is a bit worse [than other long weekends] because there's more cars at the end of COVID restrictions," he said.

"As a result of that there has been a few more offences."

A learner was also caught driving without supervision, no L plates and a passenger hanging out of the sunroof.

The passenger received two fines for not wearing a seatbelt and having part of his body outside the car, while the driver was ticketed for having a passenger unrestrained in the vehicle on Friday.

Double demerits started Thursday and end at midnight on Monday.

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