Police preparing show of strength

Out in force: Inspector Chris Gawne and Superintendent Paul Pottage with other members preparing for summer crackdown.

ERIN PEARSON
POLICE will present a united front across the region over summer to combat the road toll and unsocial behaviour, top officers have warned.
Geelong Police Superinten-dent Paul Pottage said a “significant” number of extra officers would flock to the region to help run coastal stations 24 hours while also working on “targeted operations”.
Supt Pottage said the region’s “extremely distressing” road toll demanded immediate action.
“Motorbikes, cars, single cars, cars through intersections, single cars on country roads are all problems,” he said.
“It’s a smorgasbord of different types of collisions, so it’s really difficult to get your head around how you get through to people.
“Serious injury accidents are increasing, which generally involves speed or inattention.
“One of the hardest things for the police is to attend a serious or fatal accident and see how easily it could have been prevented.”
TAC road safety manager Samantha Cockfield said Geelong was one of the state’s worst crash-risk areas.
In 2010 the TAC fielded 11 fatality claims and 237 for road accident victims admitted to hospital, Ms Cockfield.
“Whenever a booze bus is set up in Geelong we get quite a high number of people caught. The behaviour in the area isn’t particularly good,” she said.
“Around Geelong there is also a real mix of rural and regional driver behaving populations combined with city traffic which you don’t see in many other areas.
“We just plead with people to operate under the law. These aren’t new things.”
Supt Pottage said the crackdown on dangerous drivers and antisocial behaviour would run until the end of February but remain a key target for 2012.
The Geelong area’s road toll for 2011 stood at 13 this week.