General News
5 October, 2023
Long weekend road results mostly positive
Victoria Police detected more than 5000 offences on the state’s roads over the AFL Grand Final long weekend, including 33 offences locally. Police hit the road in force over the four-day long weekend as part of Operation Scoreboard, targeting high...
Victoria Police detected more than 5000 offences on the state’s roads over the AFL Grand Final long weekend, including 33 offences locally.
Police hit the road in force over the four-day long weekend as part of Operation Scoreboard, targeting high risk driving behaviours like drink and drug driving.
Across the state, more than 112,000 preliminary breath tests were conducted with 213 drivers caught over the limit behind the wheel — a strike rate of one in every 529 drivers over the limit.
A further 130 drug driving offences were detected in the state, based off over 2500 roadside drug tests.
While a total 5438 offences were detected during Operation Scoreboard, almost half of these related to speeding offences.
In the Goldfields Police Service Area, which covers the Central Goldfields, Mount Alexander and Loddon shires, there were 33 drivers picked up for breaking the law.
The majority of these offences related to speeding (25), while two drivers were caught behind the wheel with illicit drugs in their system, three were found driving while disqualified and another three were caught driving unregistered vehicles.
Sadly there were four lives lost over the course of the long weekend, bringing the state’s road toll for the year to 216.
Road Policing Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said it was positive to see most drivers doing the right thing, but fatalities were a tragic outcome.
“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.
“While many celebrated across the weekend, it was a tragic period on the roads with four lives lost in separate collisions.
“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.”