By BRIDGET COOK
THE first operation as part of Casey Highway Patrol’s summer road crackdown is over, with the results proving that many motorists are still not getting the message.
Casey police conducted Operation RAID (Remove All Impaired Drivers) between 15 November and 8 December, the first of four operations as part of their Summer Stay campaign to reduce road trauma over the high risk holiday season.
Casey Cardinia Highway Patrol Sergeant Allen Inderwisch said during Operation RAID, police detected a total of 466 offences and conducted 8968 preliminary breath tests on drivers.
“Of these tests we detected 12 drink drivers,” he said.
“While this does not seem that many compared to the number of tests conducted, it is still disturbing that we are detecting drink drivers on our roads and shows that some people are clearly not getting the message.”
Sgt Inderwisch said speeding was a prolific contributor to the high number of offences detected.
“Of the 466 offences detected, 230 people were detected exceeding the speed limit, with 18 of those travelling at speeds that incurred a loss of licence period,” he said.
“We are disappointed that so many people are still exceeding the speed limit on our roads, particularly in the lead up to Christmas.
“We also detected a large number of people failing to wear seatbelts while driving, using a mobile phone while driving and using unregistered cars.”
There will be three more operations in Casey over the summer.
Operation Break-up, will run from 9 to 23 December, which targets distraction and seatbelt offences pre-Christmas and then Operation Crossroads will focus on high risk factors associated with holiday driving during the Christmas and new year week.
Operation Fresh Start is the final element, to be run in early January, which will focus on fatigue as people return to work from the holiday break.
Sgt Inderwisch urged the community to do the right thing on the roads.
“We will be continuing our enforcement efforts over the Christmas and new year periods and are asking everyone to slow down, don’t drink and drive and, most importantly, stay safe and stay alive,” he said.
“You owe it to your family and other road users to be safe and to do the right thing.”
