The ugly Easter weather in Victoria might have spoiled the weekend for keen bike riders but at least it kept us out of the way of the almost 8000 drivers police detected offending during the period.
Speeding, mobile phone and drink and drug driving offences were particularly notable. More than a third of all offences detected were for speeding, with almost 80 per cent of motorists detected between 10km/h and 25km/h over the speed limit.
Mobile phone offences jumped 31 per cent from last year’s Easter road policing operation, with 343 motorists caught using their phones while driving. More stringent rules for distracted driving were introduced in Victoria last month to combat unlawful mobile phone use.
Assistant Commissioner Road Policing, Glenn Weir says: “It is extremely disappointing that we’ve detected almost 8000 motorists in a five-day period for a range of traffic offences – this just shows a blatant disregard for road rules and for the safety of all road users."
“Time and time again, it is those behaviours such as speed, impaired driving and distraction primarily caused by mobile phone use that are contributing to road trauma, yet we continue to detect thousands of motorists committing these offences,” Assistant Commissioner Weir says.
The total 7741 offences detected during the five-day Operation Nexus road trauma reduction campaign included:
- 2908 speeding offences
- 920 unregistered vehicles
- 529 disqualified/suspended and unlicensed drivers
- 343 mobile phone offences
- 318 disobey signs/signals
- 231 drink driving offences from 106,838 preliminary breath tests
- 175 drug driving offences from 3263 roadside drug tests
- 167 vehicle impoundments
- 163 seatbelt offences.
Eighty-nine lives have been lost so far this year, up 25 per cent on the five-year average.
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