Road shockers

By Lia Bichel
A MOTORCYCLIST travelling at 89 kilometres per hour over the speed limit, a 15-year-old girl driving her grandmother’s car erratically and people getting behind the wheel drunk.
These are only a few examples of dangerous driving Casey Highway Patrol members have seen during two police operations in the past two months.
Operation Constant sees the highway patrol and uniformed police targeting speeding drivers on Princes Highway and South Gippsland Highway.
Operation Night Owl has police patrolling near licensed premises on Friday and Saturday nights to catch drink-drivers.
Both operations, funded by the TAC, have been running since April and will finish at the end of this month.
Casey Highway Patrol Sergeant Pat McGavigan said police had seen some shocking behaviour in Casey.
For instance, at 4.20am on Sunday, police tried to pull over a car being driven erratically, Sgt McGavigan said.
When the 15-year-old girl driving the car refused to stop, police terminated the pursuit because it was too dangerous.
Police caught the girl a little later. They said she was driving alone and had not been drinking. She will face the Children’s Court at a later date,
At 10.25pm on 17 June police stopped a Eumemmerring man driving with a blood alcohol limit of .075 and holding only a learner’s permit.
At 5.05pm on 16 June police stopped a Morwell man, 57, driving with a blood alcohol limit of .268. Sgt McGavigan said the man was driving erratically and hit street signs.
“If he hits signs when he’s driving, who’s to say he won’t hit pedestrians,” he said.
And on 16 May at 10.50am police were involved in a high-speed pursuit of a motorcyclist travelling 169km/h in an 80km/h zone.
Sgt McGavigan said police had to abandon the chase to ensure the safety of other drivers. They are still searching for the motorcyclist.
Sgt McGavigan said that while many people were driving responsibly it was disappointing to see so many people disregarding road rules.
“We don’t set the speed limit, we enforce it,” Sgt McGavigan said.
“We advertise that we will be out in force but people still speed. People know that we are targeting drink drivers, but they will do it.
“During Operation Night Owl, the members are catching an average of three drink-drivers a night – that’s far too many.
“People think it is unlikely they will be caught (driving dangerously), but we are out there targeting this behaviour to try and reduce road trauma.
“We are out every day. If you don’t want to be caught, then drive responsibly.”