Highway patrol crews from Footscray and Williamstown police stations will move to Tarneit this week in a combined effort to drive down road trauma across the west.
From this Sunday, the Wyndham, Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong highway patrol squads will operate out of the Wyndham North police station in Tarneit.
The new unit, to be called the Westgate highway patrol, will have 28 police officers – 11 from Wyndham, eight each from Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong, and one tactical intelligence operative – as well as eight police cars and two off-road motorcycles.
The Wyndham highway patrol is already based at the Tarneit station.
Westgate road policing adviser Damien Madden said the merger meant the Westgate highway patrol would be able to focus on road trauma and problem areas en masse.
Senior Sergeant Madden said the new unit would include a crew to focus on recidivist offenders, including hoon drivers and drink drivers. The merger also meant the region would have a supervisor on duty for every shift, which is currently not the case for the three areas.
“It’s going to be a great leap forward in how we do things,” he said. “We know that distracted, or rear-end collisions, are a problem for road trauma due to congested roads and people getting frustrated and jumping in and out of lanes.
“Wyndham is our growth area and accounts for a larger percentage of the road trauma than Hobsons Bay and Maribyrnong.”
Senior Sergeant Madden stressed that highway patrol officers would still be able to effectively cover the Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay areas in a timely manner, with units deployed regularly across all three areas.
