Drink Driving Over the Holidays: Why Christmas and New Year Are the Most Dangerous Times to Refuse a Breath Test in NSW

For many in NSW, December means long drives to see family, Christmas parties, New Year’s Eve events, and late-night trips home. For police and the courts, it means something else entirely: the highest-intensity period of drink driving and traffic enforcement in the year. Here at National Criminal Lawyers, we were awarded Traffic Lawyers of the Year 2019, so let us break down NSW’s holiday-season driving charges and patterns for you. It could save your record.

In the 2023–24 Christmas and New Year operation, NSW Police conducted more than 438,000 roadside breath tests and laid around 720 drink-driving charges, along with nearly 10,000 speeding infringements and over 1,700 positive drug tests, all in just two weeks. This wasn’t a one-off; it is part of an ongoing pattern where major operations are launched every December, with highway patrol and general duties officers out “anywhere, anytime” to target what road safety campaigns call the “Four Ds”: drink, drug, dangerous and distracted driving.

At the same time, holiday traffic volumes rise sharply, national road-death figures have been trending upwards again, and road-safety experts and transport agencies repeatedly warn that the Christmas-to-New Year period is among the most dangerous on Australian roads. That is why random breath testing (RBT) operations, double demerits and zero-tolerance enforcement all intersect in December and January, and why refusing a breath test at this time is especially risky.

This blog explains:

• How double demerits work over Christmas in NSW
• The different PCA and DUI offences under the Road Transport Act
• Why refusing a breath test or analysis is often treated more harshly than a low-range reading
• How holiday RBT “blitzes” actually operate
• The kinds of charges we see most at Christmas, and how a drink driving lawyer Sydney can help.

Double Demerits at Christmas: One Mistake Can Cost Your Licence

NSW runs a double demerit points scheme over key holiday periods, including Christmas and New Year. During these periods, certain offences attract twice the usual demerit points, dramatically increasing the risk of a suspension.

Transport for NSW confirms that double demerits apply to speeding, illegal mobile phone use, not wearing a seatbelt or wearing it incorrectly, and riding without a motorcycle helmet. Media and motoring organisations regularly highlight that this regime runs across multiple days over Christmas and New Year, overlapping with the peak period for holiday travel and policing.

What many drivers don’t realise is that the holiday period is unforgiving. For someone already close to their 13-point limit, one high-range speeding ticket, doubled,  can lead almost immediately to a licence suspension. When that interacts with drink driving or drug driving charges, the combination of court-imposed disqualification and demerit-based suspension can be devastating.

PCA Offences: How NSW Law Classifies Drink Driving

In NSW, alcohol offences are structured around the concept of a Prescribed Concentration of Alcohol (PCA), set out in s 110 of the Road Transport Act 2013 (NSW). The main categories are:

• Novice / Special Range PCA: typically 0.00–0.019 for certain licence types;
• Low-Range PCA: 0.05 to 0.079;
• Mid-Range PCA: 0.08 to 0.149;
• High-Range PCA: 0.150 and above.

Each category has its own mandatory minimum and maximum penalties, including fines, interlock orders, and disqualification periods. For any alcohol-related “major offence”, the court must impose at least the statutory minimum disqualification, in addition to any other penalty.

Over the Christmas period, we see every category represented. Some clients are first-time low-range PCA offenders picked up on the way home from a Christmas BBQ. Others are mid- or high-range drivers caught on country roads after long lunches or winery visits, often with fatigue and distraction compounding the risk.

DUI vs PCA: When Police Allege You’re Under the Influence

Alongside PCA offences there is the broader offence of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs (DUI), usually charged under s 112 of the Road Transport Act 2013. DUI can be used where:

• No valid breath analysis or blood result is available, but
• Police rely on observed impairment: slurred speech, unsteady gait, smell of alcohol, erratic driving, admissions, or failed roadside sobriety assessments.

DUI is especially relevant in holiday crashes where drivers cannot be tested immediately due to injury or delay, or where there is suspicion of drug use that is not captured by standard mobile drug testing. It also appears in cases where a driver has refused testing but police still allege clear impairment.

Drink driving and drug driving are still markedly different – please refer to this article to learn more about the difference and how it affects you.

Refusing a Breath Test or Breath Analysis: Why It’s So Dangerous at Christmas

Many people wrongly believe that refusing a breath test will prevent police from proving they were drink driving. In NSW, refusing a breath analysis (the formal test at the station or in the bus) is itself a serious offence, and is generally treated by the courts as at least as bad – and often worse – than returning a high reading.

NSW Police conduct enormous numbers of random breath tests during holiday operations. In one Christmas-to-New Year operation, they carried out more than 438,000 tests in just two weeks. If you refuse at this time, you are not only committing a standalone offence; you are openly defying a high-profile safety campaign while the public death toll is under intense scrutiny. That context matters at sentence.

For refusal offences:

• The maximum penalties and minimum disqualifications are often aligned with or higher than those for high-range PCA.
• Courts frequently assume that refusal reflects a fear of an extremely high reading.
• Magistrates emphasise general deterrence – sending a message that people cannot “game the system” by refusing to cooperate.

In short: if you are stopped during a Christmas RBT blitz, refusing the test is not a clever loophole, it is a fast lane to a serious record and long disqualification.

Other Common Holiday Driving Offences: Not Just Alcohol

Holiday police operations are not limited to drink driving. They are integrated enforcement programs aimed at every major crash risk. As a result, we also see charges for:

• Drug driving (oral fluid tests): where drivers test positive for cannabis, MDMA or other illicit drugs at roadside and then in follow-up analysis. National data show hundreds of thousands of roadside drug tests annually, with a non-trivial positive rate, prompting repeated crackdowns.
• Speeding: particularly on highways leading out of Sydney, where double demerits and high-range speeding provisions come into play.
• Mobile phone offences: especially drivers using phones for navigation, messaging or social media while stuck in holiday traffic.
• Seatbelt offences: failing to belt up children correctly, or overcrowded vehicles taking “just a short trip”.
• Driving while suspended or disqualified: including drivers who were already on a good behaviour licence or had previous traffic suspensions.
• Negligent or dangerous driving occasioning GBH or death: in serious collisions, particularly on rural or regional roads over the Christmas period. Crash-data reports from NSW’s Centre for Road Safety track casualty crashes and fatalities across designated holiday periods, reinforcing why police focus so heavily on enforcement at this time.

Because of double demerits, many of these offences not only expose clients to fines and possible court prosecution, but also trigger instant or near-instant loss of licence through points accumulation.

How Random Breath Testing and Holiday Blitzes Really Work

RBT has been a cornerstone of NSW road safety for decades, with earlier BOCSAR research showing substantial reductions in drink-driving and related court appearances after its introduction. BOCSAR modern operations, however, are far more intensive. The Christmas/New Year blitz is highly visible: police vans on highway rest stops, static checkpoints near nightlife precincts, and mobile RBT patrols roaming popular beach and entertainment zones.

From a legal perspective, the threshold for administering a breath test is low: police can test you randomly, without any suspicion you have been drinking. If you are then taken for a breath analysis, the resulting certificate is usually powerful evidence in court unless there is a procedural flaw. The sheer scale of RBT over the holidays makes it extremely likely that anyone drink driving, even for a short trip, will eventually be detected.

Sentencing Patterns: How Courts Treat Holiday Drink Driving

Sentencing for drink driving and refusal offences will always be individual, but some patterns emerge at Christmas and New Year. Judges and magistrates:

• Emphasise general deterrence, given the volume of holiday traffic and the widely publicised death toll;
• Are wary of excuses based on “just getting home from a party”;
• Take a dim view of very high readings, repeat alcohol offences, and any collision or near-miss;
• Treat refusal offences as serious acts of defiance against a life-saving enforcement regime.

On the other hand, courts still recognise genuine first-offence cases, low-range readings, strong rehabilitation steps, and compelling personal circumstances. With the right advocacy, it is often possible to achieve non-conviction outcomes (such as a Conditional Release Order without conviction) for lower-level PCA matters, even in the festive period, particularly where a client has completed a Traffic Offender Intervention Program and demonstrated insight and remorse.

How a Drink Driving Lawyer Sydney Can Help After a Holiday Charge

If you are charged with drink driving, drug driving, refusing a breath test, or any other traffic offence during the Christmas–New Year period, timing is critical. A PCA offence lawyer Parramatta or Sydney-based traffic specialist can:

• Examine the validity of the stop and test, including whether proper procedures were followed;
• Check the timing of the breath analysis and whether statutory time limits were met;
• Assess whether there is a basis to negotiate the charge down (for example, from mid-range PCA to low-range, or DUI to a lesser offence);
• Prepare strong subjective material, including character references and medical or psychological reports;
• Advise you on prospects for non-conviction or reduced disqualification;
• Guide you through programs or treatment that strengthen your position at sentence.

At National Criminal Lawyers®, we appear daily in Local Courts across Sydney and Western Sydney acting for drivers charged during these holiday operations, and we know how magistrates approach festive-season offences in practice.

Final Word: Don’t Let One Holiday Decision Rewrite Your Future

Christmas and New Year should be about family, rest and celebration, not about losing your licence, your job or your clean record. Yet the combination of high visibility policing, double demerits, increased road deaths and huge social pressure makes December and January the worst possible time to take risks with alcohol, drugs or phones behind the wheel, and the most dangerous time to refuse a breath test.

If you’ve already been stopped, tested, or charged, do not navigate this alone.

Call National Criminal Lawyers® on 1800 CRIM LAW, or visit our website to speak with an experienced drink driving lawyer Sydney or PCA offence lawyer Parramatta. We can analyse your case, protect your rights, and fight for the best possible outcome in what is already a stressful time of year.