About 9pm on Tuesday night, Griffith police were patrolling Neeld Street in West Wyalong when they saw a Ford Falcon without number plates.

According to police, the 25-year-old driver of the Ford accelerated to 90km/h in a 50km/h zone and went down a dead-end street. The driver then drove straight at the police car and crashed into it, before rolling the Ford onto its roof as he attempted to turn into Church Street. The driver tried to run but was arrested a short distance away and treated by paramedics for minor injuries before being taken to West Wyalong Police Station where he was charged with being a disqualified driver, Skye’s Law, drive manner dangerous, unregistered and uninsured.

“It’s disappointing to see younger drivers getting detected at high speeds on our roads,” Sergeant Carroll said.

“The potential for death or injury greatly increases with speed.”

Across NSW, police had been running Operation Arrive Alive since December 18. Sergeant Carroll said in the period to January 3, Griffith police had conducted 13,522 random breath tests.

“Despite the high-visibility police presence, there’s still a high percentage of drivers who are found drink driving,” Sergeant Carroll said.

“The message is out there and it’s clear that alcohol impairs drivers’ ability. It’s a major contributing factor to road trauma and deaths, but people continue to do it.”

Sergeant Carroll said police also issued 765 infringement notices for everything from speeding, mobile phone use, driving unlicensed or unregistered and not wearing seatbelts, making it the second-highest issuer of infringement notices in the southern region.

“It’s disappointing some people still don’t see the need to wear a seatbelt,” he said. “There’s no excuse not to wear one.”

Police will be conducting another high-visibility operation from January 23 to Australia Day, aimed at reducing the amount of road trauma.