Highway officers spent several hours on Friday conducting random breath tests and drug tests of drivers in and around Tamworth.

They’ll return to hot spots on Saturday as they clamp down on drivers breaking the rules.

“This weekend we are targeting road users driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs so we will be testing RBT across the Western Region,” Sergeant Michael Buko told The Leader.

“We will be randomly drug testing people as well, there will be random RBT conducted by highway patrol and general duties so every police car you see could potentially pull you over and conduct a test on you.”

Operation Drink Drive 2 is being run across the state in a bid to drive down the state’s rising road toll. 

In the New England North West, 11 more people have been killed on the roads than this time last year.

The local road toll stands at 23.

Police said alcohol and drugs had been a factor in several crashes across the state.

“It’s about one in five or six accidents roughly at the moment that are alcohol or drug-related, but in saying that, every drink makes to it harder for you to drive to the conditions,” Sergeant Buko said.

“[Our message] is enjoy your weekend, and do it safely, and think about everyone else on the roads.

“If you’re in a rush, you need to slow down, but the main thing is if you’re going to drink alcohol, get a taxi or organise a designated driver.

“My advice is don’t drink alcohol and drive.”

Sergeant Buko said younger drivers and p-plate drivers often fell into the trap of getting behind the wheel too early after a big night out.

“We see a lot of it, including the young kids and that, the p-platers, they go out and it’s Friday or Saturday night and drink to two or three in the morning and party and then they get up the next day to go to work, and they might feel right, it’s because they still have a lot of alcohol in their system, they’ve got to be careful,” he said.

“Generally your last drink, if you’ve had a big night, after your last drink, I wouldn’t drive for eight hours just to make sure the alcohol has dissipated out of your system.”

Operation Drink Drive 2 wraps up on Sunday morning.