The New Year was ushered in last night across South Australia, with generally well behaved crowds at all the major events, according to SA Police.
Large crowds, particularly in the city and Glenelg, and people on the move between locations, make New Year’s Eve the most challenging night of the year for police.
About 45,000 people attended the T20 cricket at Adelaide Oval and over 30,000 watched the fireworks display at Elder Park.
Between 3.00 pm on New Year’s Eve and 5.30 am on New Year’s morning, there were 140 arrests, 9 reports and 199 expiation notices issued for a range ofoffences including behavioural and street offences, possession of drugs, and for consuming alcohol in dry zones.
While an increase was seen in the number of arrests, police remain pleased with crowd behaviour given the number of people enjoying the New Year’s celebrations around the state.
On New Year's Eve, Assistant Commissioner Paul Dickson asked the public to drink responsibly and to plan travel arrangements before they leave home. He advised the public that officers would be out in force conducting drink and drug driver tests.
From 8pm on New Year’s Eve until 5.30am this morning, over 6000 tests were conducted with 29 people returning a positive result to alcohol. The highest recorded reading was 0.170. Police also conducted over 115 drug tests with 7 returning positive samples.
During the evening a young pedestrian was struck by a car at 9pm on Brighton Road in Somerton Park. She was taken to the Flinders Medical Centre with critical injuries.
Police would like to remind the public if you had a long night drinking excessively, don’t expect to be below .05 this morning. You may think you’re fine to drive, but alcohol takes many hours to clear through your system.
This is also the case for illicit drugs, but unlike the .05 blood alcohol limit, there is no limit when it comes to drugs. It is an offence to get behind the wheel with illicit drugs in your system.
Patrols will be out drink and drug driver testing today, so don’t take any chances with your life or anyone else’s.
