New ride: Senior Constable Andrew Gough with Surf Coast police’s new weapon for hunting speeding drivers.
ERIN PEARSON
SURF Coast police’s first motorcycle will chase down speeding motorists on the Great Ocean Road after a spate of high-speed driving charges, according to a senior officer.
Sergeant Kelly Duhig said the new bike would allow police to pursue law-breakers through heavy tourist traffic after a frustrating few months along the Surf Coast.
“We caught a woman in her 50s the other week heading into Lorne doing 130km/h on a motorbike in an 80km/h zone,” he said.
“We’re concerned incidents like this will cause more fatalities.
“We don’t want to be knocking on doors and telling families their son or daughter, mother or father is dead.”
Sgt Duhig said police had even pursued speeding drivers down residential streets in the past month.
“We caught a bloke coming out of Torquay’s Anderson St on a motorbike doing 130km/h down Surf Coast Hwy toward Geelong right in front of the station.
“He went through a red light at Grossmans Rd and hit about 150km/h before veering into South Beach Rd at more than 170km/h before police lost sight of the vehicle.”
Police caught the unlicensed driver 30 minutes later on The Esplanade, Torquay.
Torquay Police Traffic Management Unit Senior Constable Andrew Gough said he had “lost count” of the fatal motorbike crashes he had attended in 11 years at the station.
Police were “fed up” with riders continuing to flout the law, he said.
“They’re on our radar and they will be caught.”
Sen Const Gough said police would share the motorbike between the Torquay and Colac stations to cover the entire ocean road and surrounding areas.
