A Wodonga man has been heavily criticised by police after being caught driving at nearly three times the alcohol limit with his unrestrained 18-month-old daughter in the car.
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The 32-year-old returned a reading of 0.148 on Friday night after being stopped on Hovell Street about 9.30pm, the Border Mail reports
Police were dismayed to find his daughter in the vehicle without a seatbelt.
The driver will face charges including reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
Sergeant Cameron Roberts said the man had lost his licence on the spot.
"Some people really aren't that bright," he said.
"At that level, you're quite clearly impaired.
"He doesn't understand the care that needs to be exercised with children and babies.
"Adding the two together – drink driving and having the child unrestrained – is exposing that child to fairly serious risks."
The incident is just one of a concerning number of recent cases where drivers have been intoxicated while travelling with children.
Sergeant Roberts said police were catching drug drivers with children in their vehicles, often at or near school zones.
"They've either just dropped the kids at school or kindergarten, or the kids are with them in the car," he said.
"Just how many of these fools are going to keep putting their kids in the car when they've got that in their system?
"You don't want drug drivers on the road in the first place and there are certainly areas where you particularly don't want to seem them.
"That's near schools and in areas where there are lots of pedestrians."
Highway patrol officers detected 256 drivers in Wodonga last year who tested positive to cannabis or methamphetamine, or both.
Those results do not include tests conducted by other units. About five drug drivers were detected in Wodonga each week last year, while Wangaratta police caught about two drug drivers a week.
Sergeant Roberts said officers were targeting drivers during the Queen's birthday weekend as part of Operation Regal.
"Breath testing and drug testing, particularly on long weekends, should come as no surprise," he said.
Officers also caught a 64-year-old woman drink driving on Friday afternoon near Rutherglen.
The woman was required to have an alcohol interlock device which was not fitted to the car.
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