A man supervising a learner driver allegedly blew more than six times the legal alcohol limit during a random stop at Lake Macquarie.
Highway patrol police working under a statewide blitz known as Operation Raid stopped a red Mitsubishi Lancer for random testing just before 11pm on Saturday, September 5.
The vehicle was being driven by an L-plater on Ridley Street at Charlestown.
At the time, a 40-year-old man was seated beside the learner and acting as his fully licensed supervising driver when he allegedly returned a positive roadside breath test.
Police arrested the man and took him to Belmont Police Station, where he underwent a breath analysis. He allegedly returned a high-range blood-alcohol reading of 0.310.
Supervisors of learner drivers carry the same responsibility as fully-licenced drivers to remain under the prescribed alcohol limit of 0.05, meaning the man was allegedly more than six times over.
The 40-year-old was charged with being a licensed driver with a high-range prescribed alcohol content while sitting next to a learner.
"At a reading more than six times the legal limit, this was certainly not the lesson the learner needed," highway patrol police said.
The man was one of more than 7000 drivers who will face enforcement action following the statewide traffic operation at the weekend.
Operation Raid - meaning remove all impaired drivers - was launched at midnight on Thursday and ran through to 4am on Sunday.
It was targeting people driving while affected by alcohol, drugs, and fatigue.
NSW Police highway patrol commander, Assistant Commissioner David Driver, said officers were prominent and stopped thousands of vehicles across the weekend.
"Concerningly, we found 212 drivers to be driving well beyond the legal blood alcohol limit and 774 who tested positive to roadside drug tests," Assistant Commissioner Driver said.
"Those drivers could have gone on to cause tragedies in their communities.
"The message is simple: People need to understand their legal and moral obligation when they get behind the wheel and not put others at risk.
"We're not just apprehending drivers impacted by drugs, alcohol, or fatigue during this operation, our officers will continue to be out there every day and night working to prevent deaths and serious injury on NSW roads."
Across the northern police region, there were 1781 total infringements detected. Police issued 649 for speeding, laid 76 drink-driving charges and attended 69 major crashes.
In that area, police conducted 1629 drug tests, detecting 249 positives, and performed 27,622 breath tests. There were no fatalities.
