Police & Court
Police operation saw ‘extremely high standard’ of driving during long weekend
A regional police officer says she was “extremely impressed” with driving in the Goulburn Valley over the Easter long weekend.
Operation Nexus ran from Thursday to Easter Monday, and Eastern Region Division 3 highway patrol Senior Sergeant Emma Moloney was happy to report on the standard of driving.
“The region performed to an extremely high standard,” she said.
“The majority of road users have shown positive driving behaviours, and the number of offences detected were significantly lower.”
Victoria Police conducted 7625 preliminary breath tests in the eastern region, with 1002 tests in Greater Shepparton.
Three drivers required to read as 0.00 on the breathalyser exceeded that, and eight drivers were above 0.05 — two in Greater Shepparton.
Police detected eight drivers drug driving out of the 126 tested, with one of those drivers caught in Greater Shepparton.
“Disappointingly”, there were 25 disqualified or unlicensed drivers on the road, four of whom had their vehicle impounded.
There were 15 cases of mobile phone use, which Sen Sgt Moloney said was “quite low for previous years”.
“The biggest thing of concern is low-level speeding,” she said.
“There were 27 motorists showing speeds between 10 to 25km/h over the speed limit and six above 25km/h.”
In general, however, driving behaviours had improved, Sen Sgt Moloney said.
“We want to thank the community for showing good driving behaviours over the long weekend and encourage them to continue to show that in their daily lives,” she said.
“However, people need to be reminded to slow down and make sure they can get to where they’re going safely.
“Compared to previous years, the community is making better decisions.”