General News
17 July, 2024
Driver behaviour a continued concern
POLICE detected 165 offences during a major road safety operation across Victoria’s west last month.
Operation West Connect saw highway patrol units enforcing across major arterials in Western Victoria, targeting high-risk driving behaviour associated with road trauma.
The ongoing operation focused on detecting speeding, distracted and impaired drivers, and comes as 141 lives have been lost on the state’s roads so far this year, with 35 of those occurring on roads in western Victoria.
Western region road policing inspector Justine Ryan said police would continue to be out in force and “actively on the look out for motorists who flout the rules and make dangerous choices that put all road users lives at risk”.
“While road trauma is actually down on roads in western Victoria compared to last year, 35 lives lost is still far too many, and we know first-hand the ripple effect this has across our communities,” she said.
“Operation West Connect is just one road policing initiative we’ve implemented to help keep all road users safe on roads out in the state’s west.
“Speeding continues to be a major contributing factor to serious injury and fatal collisions on regional roads, and yet we continue to catch so many people going over the speed limit.
“Slowing down and sticking to the speed limit, as well as avoiding distractions behind the wheel, are things we can all do to help make our roads safer and prevent further tragedies.”
During Operation West Connect, police conducted 338 preliminary breath tests and 50 preliminary oral fluid tests for drugs, detecting three drug driving offences and two drink driving offences.
The total 165 offences detected during the operation included 100 speeding offences, 20 unregistered vehicles, eight disqualified/suspended and unlicensed drivers, four heavy vehicle offences, two mobile phone offences, two seatbelt offences, one vehicle impoundment and one disobey traffic signal.
Sixty per cent of offences detected were for speeding, with two thirds of speeding drivers detected between 10km/h and 25km/h over the speed limit.