Double Demerits and Heavy Policy Presence this King’s Birthday Long Weekend

Double demerit points apply to speeding offences, illegally using a mobile phone while driving, not wearing a seatbelt and riding without a helmet throughout New South Wales from 12.01am on Friday, 6 June until 11.59pm on Monday, 9 June 2025.

This King’s Birthday long weekend is one of three period to which double-demerits apply in 2025, the others being the Labour Day long weekend from 3 to 6 October 2025 and the Christmas / New Year period from 24 December 2025 to 4 January 2026.

Operation Regal

To enforce double-demerit and other traffic offences, police are conducting Operation Regal – which will targeting risky driving behaviours such as drink driving, drug driving and speeding. 

Police say there will be a particular focus on regional areas this year, given the significant increase in road fatalities on rural roads.

Last year saw an 8% increase in detected traffic offences across the state, the biggest rise being in speeding offences.

The same operation last King’s Birthday long weekend saw police issue over 7,000 penalty notices, ranging from not wearing a seatbelt to speeding and driving with a low range prescribed concentration of alcohol or low range drink driving, which can be dealt with by way of a penalty notice rather than receiving a court attendance notice and being required to attend court.

Spike in road fatalities

Statistics suggest that 161 people have lost their lives on New South roads to date in 2025, which represents a 12.59% increase on the 143 fatalities the same time in 2024.

The number of serious injuries on the state’s roads is currently 10,695 this year, which represents a slight 0.78% increase at this time in 2024.

The message from police and the New South Wales government is to be well-rested and drive carefully this long weekend – for your own safety and that of all other road users.