Highway patrol vehicles and uniform branch cars will target everything from the Hume Highway to back roads as part of the statewide blitz to catch drivers flouting the law in the lead-up to the festive season.

“All hands are on deck, every police car will be conducting random breath tests in addition to our stationary units,” Albury highway patrol Sgt Phil George said.

“We’ll be focusing on both main roads and back roads to ensure we remove alcohol and drug-impaired drivers off our roads.”

This year’s NSW road toll has climbed well above last year’s record low of 386, and police are determined to address the rise in fatal crashes.

Sgt George said the Albury command had seen eight fatalities in 2009.

“That’s above our three-year average,” he said.

“We’ve had an alcohol-related fatality in recent times and we’re very motivated to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The blitz will lead into the national Operation Raid to be held in mid-November which will see the return of the drug buses to the Border.

Operation Drink Drive I, held at the end of February this year, detected 10 drivers for drink-driving offences in the Albury command and another person for refusing a breath test.

That was double the tallies from each of the past two of the biannual blitzes.

“It’s always a reminder that the vast majority of people always do the right thing and it’s only a minority of people that continue to flout the law,” Sergeant George said.

During last year’s statewide operation, NSW police conducted 111,423 breath tests with 469 charges laid for drink-driving offences.

This weekend’s operation will end at midnight on Sunday in some other areas of the state.

“There are no excuses. A car can be a deadly weapon and people who drive when drunk risk the lives of not only themselves but other road-users,” commander of traffic services branch, Assistant Commissioner John Hartley said.

“It is an extraordinarily selfish thing to do, you are risking your own safety and that of others.

“The message is clear. There is no where to hide from us if you plan to drink and drive. Driving whilst drunk is a crime and if you do it, you’re a criminal. You will be locked up.”