By Danielle Kutchel
Almost 200 motorists were detected drink and drug driving on Victoria’s roads in a safety blitz over the AFL Grand Final long weekend – with seven drug drivers detected within the Casey Police Service Area.
Operation Scoreboard saw Victoria Police ramp up enforcement with 2054 traffic offences detected and a further 198 offences related to drink and drug driving.
Operation Scoreboard was conducted from 12:01am Thursday 23 September to 11:59pm Sunday 26 September.
The four-day, statewide operation targeted high-risk driving behaviour with a particular focus on speeding and impaired driving.
Despite the Melbourne lockdown and ongoing restrictions across the state, police detected 104 motorists drink driving from 11,833 tests while almost one in 10 drivers tested returned a positive reading for drugs.
No drink drivers were picked up within the Casey Police Service Area.
Within Casey, police detected:
– 5 disqualified drivers
– 3 unlicensed drivers
– 28 speeding offences
– 1 disobey signs/signals
– 4 mobile phone offences
– 8 unregistered vehicles
– 1 impoundment
There were zero seatbelt or cyclist offences.
A summary of offences detected across Victoria from Operation Scoreboard include:
• 104 drink driving offences from 11,833 preliminary breath tests
• 94 drug driving offences from 898 roadside drug tests
• 75 disqualified/suspended drivers
• 87 unlicensed drivers
• 188 unregistered vehicles
• 920 speeding offences
• 56 mobile phone offences
• 87 disobey signs/signals
• 35 vehicle impounds
• 54 seatbelt offences
• 53 motorcyclist offences
• 35 vehicle impoundments
Assistant Commissioner Road Policing, Glenn Weir, thanked the majority of Victorians to adhering to restrictions over the weekend.
“It is extremely disappointing that we continue to catch people undertaking high-risk behaviour on our roads, with more than 2000 offences detected over the weekend – this is totally unacceptable,” he said.
“Sadly, there were also two lives lost in separate, single-vehicle collisions over the weekend – that’s two lives too many.”
He said police would continue to maintain a “highly visible” presence over the coming weeks as restrictions ease, and would hold motorists to account for dangerous driving.
“Whether it’s speed, distraction, disobeying road rules, not wearing a seatbelt, fatigue or impairment from alcohol or drugs at play, road trauma can be avoided,” the Assistant Commissioner said.
