THE Tweed-Byron area police command remains the drink-driving capital of Northern New South Wales.

More than a quarter of the Northern Region’s drink-driving offences over the Easter long weekend were detected in the two shires.

And the region, which stretches from Newcastle to the border, detected the highest number of drink-drivers in the state.

Northern Region traffic co-ordinator acting Senior Sergeant Glenn Trubody said the detections were part of Operation Tortoise, which ran from Thursday to Monday.

“Police conducted 2384 breath tests, and for that there were 27 drink-driving offences detected,” Acting Snr Sgt Trubody said.

“There were 38 speeding infringements, 10 seat belt offences, 100 other traffic infringement tickets and 21 other traffic charges.”

“Tweed-Byron was the highest in drink-driving offences and other traffic charges and the rest were scattered throughout the Northern Region.”

Acting Snr Sgt Trubody said the annual Bluesfest was a cause for extra offences.

“We had the Bluesfest on and police were very active,” he said.

“They conducted a very high-profile operation and they detected a lot of people doing the wrong thing; that brought it up.”

He said police were fed up with serious driving offences.

“The warnings and reminders are over; we’ve tried them and it has got to the stage where police are sick of giving out warnings. They’re out there to catch as many people as they can.”

Northern Region: 2 fatal crashes; 102 drink-driving offences; 1198 speeding infringements; and 1345 other traffic infringements.

Tweed Byron Local Area Command: 0 fatal crashes; 27 drink-driving offences; 38 speeding infringements; 10 seat belt offences; and 121 other traffic infringements.