Do the right thing while driving this long weekend and double demerits will not be an issue.
In NSW, a long weekend brings with it double demerit points for speeding, mobile phone, seatbelt, and motorcycle helmet offences.
And while some cry foul, since their introduction in 1997, double demerit points have proven to be an effective deterrent to unsafe driving with casualty crashes (where someone is killed or injured) decreased by 30 per cent when double demerit points were in operation.
Data from Transport for NSW shows the state’s road toll during holiday periods declined from 55 in 1997 – when the double demerit points system was introduced – to 22 in 2008. Since then, holiday fatalities have fluctuated from a high of 34 in 2017 to 18 in 2020…