The Queen’s Birthday long weekend is an extremely busy period for highways. The highways and roads up and down the east coast of New South Wales sees an increased number of cars, with many people travelling to holiday parks and holiday homes outside of major cities.

Due to an increased usage of roads and a spike in accidents over these periods, NSW Police introduced the ‘double demerit points’ campaign back in 1997. This meant that the Police can seek to curb road users from doing the wrong thing on the roads by making penalties harsher. The campaign is known as ‘Double Demerits – Think Twice’ road safety campaign. The campaign aims to encourage safe driving behaviour.

Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend Dates and Specifics

The Queen’s Birthday runs from the midnight Friday 9 to midnight Monday 12 June 2017. Not all penalties are covered by the double points system.

The double demerit point scheme applies to:

  • Speeding
  • Riding without a helmet
  • Not wearing a seat belt
  • Illegal use of mobile phones

Before each long weekend holiday you will see more ads on TV, the radio and billboards to make motorists aware that the scheme will come into play soon. More highway patrol and unmarked police cars on the roads help enforce the laws.

The NSW government has implemented this strategy to help reduce road accidents and injuries to people. Last year four people died over the same period. For the first half of last year, 12165 people had been injured on NSW roads compared to 12160 this year. There is a slight improvement but much can still be done to keep the roads safer.

Parts of the Princess Highway along the east coast have been marked as black spots to warn drivers to take extreme caution.

If you have an accident on the roads this weekend make sure you contact 02 9299 1424.

Drive safely and enjoy the weekend.