By Alesha Capone
Police have caught 167 motorists breaking the law in Wyndham during an eight-day road safety blitz across the Melbourne Cup week.
Operation Compass was conducted in two phases across the state, between Friday, October 29 to Tuesday, November 2, and from Friday, November 5 to Sunday, November 7.
During this time frame, police in Wyndham detected 61 speeding offences, 28 unregistered vehicles and 18 mobile phone offences committed by motorists.
Officers on patrol also caught 11 disqualified drivers, 10 drink drivers and five drug drivers.
Eight unlicensed drivers were found driving on Wyndham’s roads, along with 10 motorists who disobeyed signs or signals and seven who committed seatbelt offences.
A total of eight cars were impounded in Wyndham during Operation Compass.
Across Victoria, a total of 8641 traffic offences were detected and a further 523 drivers were caught for alcohol or drug-related driving offences.
Speeding made up 45 per cent of all offences detected, with 3077 motorists caught speeding between 10 kilometres per hour and 25 kilometres per hour over the speed limit.
One notable detection by police during Operation Compass was a 46-year-old Doncaster man whose Porsche was impounded after he was caught allegedly travelling at 155 kilometres per hour in an 80 kilometre zone of the Western Ring Road.
A total of 200 people have lost their lives on Victoria’s road so far this year, compared with 183 at the same time last year.
Assistant Commissioner of Road Policing Glenn Weir said that speed remained the number one contributing factor to fatalities and serious injury collision on the state’s roads.
“Lives can be saved if people make better choices behind the wheel,” he said.
“We have caught far too many people undertaking high-risk driving behaviour during this period – the number of people detected speeding at mid-range to high levels is alarming.
“The speed limits are there to keep people safe, and we will continue to hold motorists who pose a risk to other road users to account.
“Everyone deserves to arrive at their destination alive.”
