Tamworth police happy with lack of incidents so far, but issue warning about drink driving over New Year's

The Tamworth region was free of any serious incidents over Christmas, which is relieving for acting inspector Karen Teasley.

"I'm not aware of anything major that's happened over the Christmas period that's been brought to light to me," she said.

"I can't see that it's been any different to any other Christmas period so far."

However, that doesn't mean the high-visibility police operation is going to ease up, with Acting Inspector Teasley keen to see off the busy holiday break without anything of note taking place.

"We're still going to be focusing on people who are drink driving and driving whilst they've got drugs in their system, and speed and fatigue related driving," she said.

That sentiment was echoed by her colleague, Oxley Detective Acting Inspector Jason Darcy.

He said it is a historically dangerous time for all types of road users across the state, and it's a period when some people are drawn into making poor decisions.

"People will be travelling, COVID restrictions are reduced so people are keen to get away," he said.

"All I can say is be patients, don't drink and drive.

"We say it every year but there will be extra police in the district, especially with Country Music Festival around the corner, we'll have a large police presence so if you're going to jump in the car - think twice."

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The warning comes following the latest NRMA drink driving report, which shows the amount of people caught over the limit significantly increased from 2019 to 2020.

Of the almost three million random breath tests completed in 2020, 0.5 per cent of people returned a positive reading.

That figure is up from 0.3 per cent the previous year, and the highest tally since 2011.

In 2020, 54 people died and 303 were injured as the result of alcohol-related car accidents, and 72 per cent of those deaths came on country roads.

NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury said he believes some complacency may be setting in for some drivers after seeing years of warnings across multiple media platforms.

"To most Australians the thought of drink driving is abhorrent and we have come a long way to making the behavior socially unacceptable, however these statistics show that complacency is creeping back in with some drivers and that has to stop immediately," he said.

"The NRMA is a big supporter of the work done every day by the men and women of the NSW Police in keeping drivers safe on the road and we know how effective random breath testing is at changing bad driver behavior.

"Understandably, the random breath testing regime was impacted heavily by COVID for safety reasons but as these statistics show we need to get the testing numbers back up again, especially during the festive season when so many people are attending work and social events."

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