By Charlene Macaulay
Police will be out in force on Wyndham roads this silly season in a concerted bid to reduce road trauma over the Christmas and New Year period.
Westgate Highway Patrol and other policing units will flood major arterial roads in Wyndham and across the state and will set up speed cameras and booze buses in identified speed and high collision hot spots as part of Operation Roadwise, which begins this Friday and will run until January 6.
Police are particularly keen to avoid crashes such as last year’s high-speed head-on collision in Point Cook on Christmas Eve which claimed three lives.
Sergeant Marty Wallace from Westgate Highway Patrol said road trauma wasn’t just about those who died, it also greatly affected family and friends, and emergency services workers who attend the scenes of crashes and deliver the devastating news to loved ones.
Sergeant Wallace said police would be targeting drivers leaving end-of-year work functions.
“During this road policing operation, Victoria Police will implement a strategically co-ordinated and tactically focused approach targeting the key contributing factors to road trauma – speed, alcohol and drug impairment, mobile phones, fatigue and [not wearing] seatbelts.”
Last year, more than 650 offences were detected, with police nabbing 189 drivers for using their mobile phone while behind the wheel and also detected 107 seatbelt offences, 84 speeding offences, 40 drivers who disobeyed road signs or traffic lights, 34 drink drivers and four drug drivers, among other offences.
