South West police ‘disappointed’ in high number of drink-driving offences over holidays

South West police charged more than 40 people with drink-driving in just one week over the holiday period in what senior officers are describing as a “disappointing” response to road safety messages.

Superintendent Geoff Stewart said police were “sick and tired” of seeing so many drink-drivers on the road after 41 people were charged with drink-driving from December 23 to New Year’s Day.

“Twenty is too many ... we’re very disappointed in the numbers this holidays,” he said.

“Fortunately, we caught them before they became a statistic or made some innocent person into a statistic.

“We’ve stopped a lot of funerals.”

Supt Stewart said although South West residents were not innocent when it came to drink-driving, holiday-makers visiting the area comprised a large portion of people found behaving poorly on the roads.

“We get a lot of people who come down here on holiday mode and think it’s OK to do that. It’s not,” he said.

As well as the 41 drink-driving charges, police also seized 14 vehicles, 10 of which were not registered.

Supt Stewart said police could only do so much in preventing drink-driving and it was up to the public to step in and take preventative measures.

“You need to be in conversations with people that are susceptible to drink-driving and tell them they’re being an absolute idiot putting themselves and others at risk,” he said.

“We’re sick and tired of going to fatal crashes or serious crashes. It’s the most depressing and distressing thing you can do, let alone getting a family involved.”

Police have also warned that just because double demerits ended this weekend, the crackdown on badly behaved drivers will not slow down.

“We don’t stop,” Supt Stewart said.

“We don’t just pack the toys away and say that’s it for another year ... we’re going to keep on doing what we’re doing every single day.”

The South West had one fatality in the holiday period after a 45-year old man died in a crash with a tow truck in Waroona on December 30.

WA’s road fatalities were down in 2023, with 157 deaths recorded, 81 of those in regional WA.

This is a decline in number of fatalities, with 175 lives lost on WA roads in 2022, 112 of which were on regional roads.

Double demerits will resume over the Australia Day long weekend from Thursday, January 25, to Sunday, January 28.