Gerald Lynch
77 offences throughout Hume and Whittlesea were detected during a major road safety effort over the Grand Final long weekend.
Operation Scoreboard saw police targeting high-risk driving behaviour across the state from 12.01 am on September 28 to 11.59 pm on October 1, in an effort to reduce road trauma.
In Hume, police detected 16 speeding offences and seven disobey signs or signals, with an overall total of 30 offences.
In Whittlesea, seven speeding offences and 15 disobey signs or signals were detected by police, with its total at 47 offences.
Across the state 5483 offences were detected during Operation Scoreboard with four fatalities following separate incidents.
One drink driving offence detected involved an Epping P-plate driver who was allegedly caught drink driving twice in 12 hours.
The 29-year-old Epping man was pulled over driving a red Mazda after he was allegedly detected speeding on the Western Freeway in Myrniong about 6pm on Thursday, September 28.
After a positive roadside reading, he was taken to a police station and returned an evidentiary breath test of 0.133.
The man’s licence was immediately suspended and he was issued with infringement notices for drink driving, exceeding the speed limit by 20kmh and failing to display P plates.
Just 12 hours later police were called to the Western Highway at Warrenheip in relation to a suspected drink driver.
The same 29-year-old Epping man from the previous incident, who was the sole occupant of the car, was assessed at the scene and taken back to a police station where he returned an evidentiary breath test 0.134.
The man has been bailed to face Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on November 21 to face charges of driving over the legal limit and driving whilst suspended.
Assistant commissioner of road policing Glen Weir said this year’s Operation Scoreboard said that while most drivers were doing the right thing, the number of offences is still far too high.
“Police focused heavily on drink and drug drivers, and while pleasingly the majority of those tested were doing the right thing, we still detected 343 drink and drug driving offences over the weekend – this is unacceptable,” he said.
“With the number of lives lost now at a seven-year high, it is paramount that we all do everything we can to stop more trauma on our roads this year. Now is not the time to be complacent”.
