Gerald Lynch
A total of just 11 traffic offences were detected in Hume and Whittlesea during a major road safety effort on the January 26 long weekend.
Operation Amity, which ran from January 25 to January 28, resulted in a high police presence on major arterial roads and highways across Victoria in an effort to reduce road trauma.
A total of 5,206 traffic offences were detected across the weekend, but across the north, drivers were on their best behaviour.
In Whittlesea, police detected eight traffic offences, including one offence of combined drinking and drug driving, two speeding offences, one unregistered vehicle, one drink driver, two disqualified drivers, and one impoundment.
In Hume, police detected just three traffic offences, of which two were speeding offences and one was an unregistered vehicle offence.
Road Policing Assistant Commissioner, Glenn Weir said that speeding was a major concern over the long weekend, and with school beginning this week, drivers need to be more careful than ever.
“We’ll continue to prioritise speeding enforcement and with school returning this week, we’ll be focusing on enforcing speed limits around school zones,” he said.
“Most speed detections are for low to mid-range speeding, which suggests to us that many motorists think it’s acceptable to travel just a little bit over the speed limit.
“What many motorists don’t seem to grasp is that speeding continues to be the leading cause of serious injury and fatal collisions.
“Any form of excessive or inappropriate speed, whether it be 5km/h to 25km/h over the limit, significantly increases the likelihood of being involved in a collision.
“We need people to stop being reckless and speeding unnecessarily to get to your destination faster – you’d rather arrive five or 10 minutes late, than not at all.”
