Alcohol and drug limits for NSW drivers

Blood alcohol limits by licence

Your BAC limit depends on the licence you hold and what you are driving.

• Learner, P1 and P2: zero.
• Full car licence, including a full interstate or overseas licence: under 0.05.
• Under 0.02 for drivers of buses, taxis and rideshare cars, heavy vehicles above 13.9 tonnes, and dangerous goods.
• Supervising a learner: under 0.05, and the supervisor can be breath tested like a driver.
• Drinking alcohol while driving is banned for everyone, whatever their BAC.

Zero means zero. On L or P plates, any alcohol in your breath or blood while driving is an offence.

What BAC and a standard drink mean

Knowing the units helps you see why counting drinks is unreliable.

• BAC measures alcohol in the blood: 0.05 means 0.05 grams in every 100 millilitres.
• An Australian standard drink holds 10 grams of pure alcohol.
• Glasses poured at home or in bars often hold more than one standard drink.
• The same number of drinks gives different readings depending on your size, food, health and the true size of each drink.

Sobering up takes time

Plenty of myths promise a quicker way to get under the limit. None of them work.

• Only time lowers your BAC. Coffee, food, a shower or exercise do not.
• After heavy drinking late at night, you may still be over your limit the next morning.
• Even at zero BAC, a hangover can still leave you drowsy and slow to react.
• Alcohol slows reactions, weakens judgement, narrows and blurs your vision and makes speed and distance harder to judge, all while making you feel more capable.
• The effects begin with just one or two drinks. Alcohol is a depressant, slowing how your brain takes things in, and crashes involving a drinking driver tend to be more serious than others.

Unsure whether last night has worn off? Leave the car at home and find another way.

Breath tests, drug tests and interlocks

Police in NSW can test drivers at any time, with no reason needed.

• A random breath test can happen anywhere, even if you have done nothing wrong.
• Refusing a breath test is a serious offence with heavy penalties.
• Roadside drug tests screen for cannabis, methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine.
• The offence is the drug being present. Feeling normal, or having used it days earlier, is no defence.
• A court can order an interlock: an ignition-linked breath tester you must blow into and pass before the engine will start.

Medicines and other drugs

Legal drugs can impair your driving as much as illegal ones, so treat every tablet with care before a drive.

• It is also an offence to drive impaired by any drug, and that includes medicine your doctor prescribed.
• Read the label on a new medicine and ask a doctor or pharmacist whether it affects driving. Find out how any drug acts on you before you get behind the wheel.
• Borrowed tablets and driving do not mix. If a friend offers you some, check the label first, and say no to a prescription medicine or anything that warns of drowsiness or driving.
• Two or more medicines taken together can change how each one works, so ask your doctor or pharmacist whether that mix is safe for driving.
• Alcohol combined with medicines or other drugs makes impairment much worse.

Getting home safely

The decision that matters most is made before the first drink, not at the end of the night.

• The safest amount of alcohol before driving is none at all.
• Late Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights are the peak for drink driving crashes, so drive expecting that someone near you has been drinking.
• On those late nights, alcohol plays a part in roughly half of all serious crashes.
• Sort out your way home before you start drinking: a sober friend, a lift, a taxi or public transport.
• Stay out of any car whose driver has been drinking or taking drugs.