Unrestrained CARE

By Lia Bichel
UNRESTRAINED children, unlicensed drivers and almost $200,000 of unpaid fines were detected during a five-hour police operation last week.
Police said they found some drivers were “irresponsible and dangerous” after conducting Operation CARE on 14 September.
The five-hour operation was run on Narre Warren North Road by the Casey Highway Patrol, local police, the Sheriff’s Office and an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) vehicle.
The police operation, which is now in its third year, is a highly visible roadblock-style operation targeting traffic and crime-related offences, including drug trafficking, smuggling of stolen goods, unlicensed and drink drivers and motorists not wearing seatbelts.
Sergeant Allen Inderwisch said there were numerous drivers who were not obeying the road rules. “As a result of the operation, which ran for about five hours, police detected a large number of offences including unregistered vehicles, unlicensed drivers, unroadworthy vehicles and people driving with suspended or cancelled licences,” Sgt Inderwisch said. “We also detected two drivers with unrestrained children. One child was a girl aged about 6, another was a boy aged about 10.
“Drivers not making sure their children are restrained are straight out irresponsible and dangerous, bordering on selfish. One lady told us she was in a hurry and didn’t have time to strap in her child. It’s a very selfish and dangerous attitude.”
Drivers with unpaid fines were also forced to pay up from the Sheriff’s Office.
A total of $188,588 in unpaid fines from 36 drivers were detected at the roadblock. That number is significantly higher than the $62,000 of unpaid fines retrieved during Operation CARE in April.
“To recover that amount from 36 drivers obviously indicated that there is a problem with people not paying their fines. It’s very surprising we have that many people out there who are not paying their fines,” Sgt Inderwisch said, “Some people think they can get away with it, some didn’t realise they had the fines and some people just kept putting off paying their fines.