It was a busy long weekend for police, with almost 150 traffic offences detected in Geelong across four days during a road-safety operation.
Police targeted high-risk driving behaviour during the Labour Day long weekend (6-9 March) across the state as part of Operation Arid, with 144 offences recorded in the Geelong region.
Road Policing assistant commissioner Glenn Weir said 6500 traffic offences occurred across the state, with speeding recorded as the highest offence in Geelong.
“Disappointingly, a significant number of motorists were caught doing the wrong thing over the Labour Day long weekend,” he said.
“It is frustrating because the majority of drivers know they are doing the wrong thing, but choose to run the risk anyway, and we need this behaviour to stop.”
Eighty-three speeding offences were identified in Geelong, followed by 14 cases of drivers disobeying signs or signals and nine mobile-phone incidents.
Police also detected eight unregistered vehicles, five disqualified drivers, four cyclist offences, three unlicensed drivers, one seatbelt offence, one impoundment, seven drink drivers, six drug drivers, and three other drink-driving offences.
There were four fatalities across the state during the long weekend, including the death of a man following a two-car collision in Lovely Banks during the last day of the operation.
Mr Weir said March was “a high-risk month for road trauma historically” and that police were doing what they could to drive down trauma on the state’s roads.
“If you blatantly choose to speed or break the rules on our roads, you will be caught and police make no apologies for this,” he said.
“People might complain about receiving a fine, but the reality is that receiving a penalty is completely avoidable if drivers obey the speed limits and road rules.”
Surf Coast police detected 70 speeding offences, 12 cases of drivers disobeying signs or signals, 10 unregistered vehicles, five unlicensed drivers, five cyclist offences, two drink drivers, two drug drivers, and two disqualified drivers.
Victoria Police said it will continue to enforce the law anywhere and at any time across the state’s roads, not just during traffic operations.
