RAID reaps results

By Lia Bichel
A POLICE crackdown on Casey roads resulted in 39 people being caught for drink-driving.
Operation RAID, which stands for Remove All Impaired Drivers, and ran from 26 November until 12 December throughout Australia aims to remove motorists from the road who are impaired by alcohol or drugs.
In Casey, 5251 preliminary breath tests were conducted and 39 blood-alcohol offences were detected, as well as 15 disqualified drivers, 23 unlicensed drivers, 63 seatbelt offences, and 69 mobile phone offences.
Last week, Casey Highway Patrol Sergeant McGavigan said the majority of drivers obeyed the rules but added that some drivers didn’t.
“Drivers who fail to heed the warning will be put off the road hopefully before someone gets hurt,” he said.
“Drivers need to ask themselves – how important is your licence – can you get by without one. If they drink and drive they will be caught at some time – maybe not today or tomorrow but with more people being tested than ever before it is only a matter of time before police catch them.”
Throughout Victoria, police detected almost 1500 blood-alcohol, more than 50 drug driving breath offences and a number of other offences.
Road Policing Superintendent Neville Taylor said police were appalled by the number of drink-drivers.
“At the start of this operation, which ran simultaneously in every state and territory in Australia, we said that police would be flooding roads across Victoria. And we did,” Supt Taylor said.
“Police breath-tested almost 400,000 motorists over the past two weeks, and we caught 1500 drink-drivers. That’s 1500 people who put not only their lives at risk, but other innocent road users.
“It’s incredibly disappointing, but it shows we have our intelligence right through targeting the right areas at the right time.”
Supt Taylor said that this year, about a quarter of drivers killed on Victoria’s roads had a blood alcohol level above 0.05m.
“By removing 1500 drink-drivers, I have no doubt that our police have saved lives,” Supt Taylor said.
“I have a strong message today, this is just the beginning of our Christmas period campaign. We are out there, on all roads,at all times of day and night- just don’t risk it.”
Sgt McGavigan said police would run Operation Aegis IX from 17 December until 9 January. The operation will focus on drink driving, speeding, occupant safety, driver distractions and other offences.
“The Transport Accident Commission have supported Victoria Police in addressing this by funding overtime to keep police vehicles focused on Road Trauma Reduction on patrol longer,” he said.