WA Police Slam Drunk, Drugged Drivers Travelling WITH Children

Police in Western Australia have found themselves venting on Twitter after a frustrating long weekend where too many drivers were ignoring the road safety message.

Despite double demerit points in place and police out in force to do random drug and alcohol testing, there were some people whose crimes deserved particular attention for their stupidity. In particular, and to the surprise and disappointment of police, many of these people were parents. Police shared some of the worst offenders on the social network.

Those caught in the long weekend sting included a woman who was 8 months pregnant and driving in the car with her five-year-old child. She tested positive to meth. However she was far from the only one. Another driver was picked up with a 0.173 blood alcohol reading while traveling with their child in the car. Police slammed the unnecessary risk in their post:

“Seriously!!! with your child in car, crash waiting to happen,” they tweeted.

Later on another driver was caught testing positive to both meth and cannabis, while travelling with her 5 month old in the car. The police account tweeted that they were “Thankful [she was] not my mum”.

From the look of the WA Police twitter account it was a busy long weekend for the state’s police force with a number of cars being seized and impounded, people being caught speeding, and positive drink and drug tests from drivers of all walks of life. While the long weekend is a time that police redouble their efforts to catch drivers acting dangerously on roads, this proves that many drivers, and not just those in Western Australia, are still ignoring the warnings.

Some Improvement

It’s hardly good news, particularly to the families of those who have lost their lives, but the Easter road toll was remarkably low this year. Although the road toll period runs until midnight tonight, as yet there have only been nine road deaths across the nation. These included an unborn baby killed in Victoria, a 70-year-old woman killed in South Australia, a man who crashed in the Northern Territory, and a man killed in a head-on collision in New South Wales. Western Australia had the highest number of road deaths, with five all together including three deaths on Monday as the weekend was drawing to a close.

However there have been a large number of close calls, and many state police forces have noted that although fatalities might be low, the number of people being caught for drug and alcohol offences, as well as speeding, continues to increase. Queensland has so far had an Easter weekend free of fatalities, an improvement from last year when 8 people died on the roads during the long weekend. Last year the total road toll was 22, with 14 deaths by Easter Sunday.

source: 9news, WA Police Twitter, Yahoo News, ABC News