New drink driving laws being introduced in NSW means you will be fined up to $561 and lose your licence immediately for 3 months for low-range drink driving. Low-range drink driving is between 0.05 and 0.079 BAC.
You’ll have to hand your licence over to the police and find your own way home from the roadside or police station…Ouch!
Here are the changes so far in NSW
- Loss of licence and fines of $561 for low-range drink driving
- Interlock system for mid-range drink driving
- Vehicle sanctions for high-risk (repeat) drink driving.
Alcohol car interlock system
An alcohol interlock is a breathalyser hooked up to the ignition of a car. It will only allow you to drive if you blow 0.00%BAC. These days the breathalyser will also take a photo of the person providing the sample to reduce adulteration of the sample.
If you are convicted of mid-range drink driving (0.08% to 0.149%BAC) you will be disqualified from driving for 6 months, and required to participate in the interlock system for 12 months…. which costs around $2200. The length of these periods does vary due to how serious the charges are and the type of offence.
If you blow over 0.00%, you may need to extend the period of the program at your own cost, so it may be o good idea to have a separate personal Breatho.
Vehicle sanctions for repeat drink drivers
Police have the ability to apply vehicle sanctions to repeat drink driving if within 5 years of a previous drink driving conviction. Repeat drink driving such as mid-range 0.08 to 0.149), high range (0.15 or more), or refusal to undertake the breath analysis or refusal to give a blood sample.
Most information in this post was taken from the Transport for NSW website
