As Victorians enjoyed the King’s Birthday long weekend, Victoria Police detected 48 traffic offences in Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay as part of Operation Regal.
Operation Regal had police targeting high-risk driving behaviour across the state over four days in an effort to drive down road trauma, with more than 7000 offences detected in Victoria.
In Hobsons Bay, police detected nine speeding offences, six impoundments, three mobile phone offences, five disobeying signs/signals offences, four unlicensed drivers, three unregistered vehicles, three disqualified drivers, three seatbelt offences, two drink drivers and one cyclist offence.
In Maribyrnong, police detected three drink drivers, three unlicensed drivers, one impoundment, one disobeying signs/signals and one disqualified drivers.
Road Policing Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said it was “very disappointing” that police detected “so many” people disregarding the road rules over the long weekend.
“It is much harder to avoid a collision in wet weather if you’re speeding, distracted, or driving while impaired, and yet we caught so many people taking those risks,” he said.
“Even more concerning was the high number of people detected drink or drug driving – these people are making reckless and selfish decisions that not only puts themselves at risk, but all other road users.
“It only takes one poor decision and a split second to cause a tragedy, and yet we’ve seen far too much of that on our roads this year.
“Police will continue to enforce against those who engage in risky driving behaviour – there will be zero tolerance for those who blatantly disregard the road rules.”
With wet weather and poor visibility increasing as winter sets in across Victoria, police are urging motorists to take extra care on the roads and be on the lookout for vulnerable road users – particularly motorcyclists and pedestrians.
Police will remain highly visible on the roads across the state, with targeted operations to take place over the coming weeks focusing on vulnerable road user safety.
Operation Regal ran from 12.01am Friday, June 7, until 11.59pm on Monday, June 10.
