Tough new penalties start for drink-driving in NSW

ANYONE caught drink- or drug-driving in NSW will immediately lose their licence for three months under a tough new penalty regime.

First-time low-range drinkdrivers from yesterday will be slapped with an on-the-spot three-month licence suspension and ordered to pay a $561 fine.

Drivers found with drugs in their system will face the same sanction if the offence is confirmed by laboratory analysis.

Previously, only those with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher copped an immediate licence suspension.

“For far too long, too many people who have been caught drink-driving, or driving with drugs in their system, have been able to go get themselves a good lawyer, head off to court and get off without even a slap on the wrist,” NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury (pictured) told reporters yesterday.

“This is about re-enforcing and supporting the work that police are doing on the roads.”

The NSW change mimics that introduced to Victoria in April 2018.

NSW Police, when announcing the new regime earlier in May, said the drinkdriving limit had been 0.05 for almost four decades and drivers had “no more excuses”.

Some 68 people died in alcohol-related crashes in NSW in 2018.