WANGARATTA police have expressed their disappointment in the detections of low-level impaired driving and speeding offences throughout the holiday period.
A statewide police crackdown on festive drivers flouting the rules on local roads took place as part of Operation Roadwise from December 13 to January 1
Acting Sergeant James Schifferle of Wangaratta Highway Patrol said police were happy to see no major collisions or injuries recorded within the region throughout the operation, but too many drivers were caught flouting the law.
“Disappointingly we still did detect too many people on the road with alcohol or illicit drugs in their system,” he said.
“That’s unacceptable and it continues to happen unfortunately.
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“We also detected too many motorists for low-level speeding...people think that it’s ok to speed up to 10km/h over, but it’s not, and it puts everyone on the road at risk.”
Due to ongoing industrial action, limited offence data was recorded throughout the 20-day operation.
Act Sgt Schifferle said no excessive speeding or drink or drug driving incidents were observed within the Wangaratta area during the operation.
Wangaratta police reported two incidents of high-level drink driving and dangerous driving just prior to the operation, with a driver caught at a reading of .194 on Wednesday, December 4 at Springhurst and a local man with a reading of .265 caught driving erratically on Saturday, December 7.
Act Sgt Schifferle said drivers can still expect high volumes of traffic within the region throughout school holidays and into the Australia Day long weekend, when police will begin Operation Amity in another crackdown on local roads.
“Even though the operation is concluded police will remain out on the roads detecting these offences and dealing with these drivers,” he said.
There were 282 lives lost in 2024 compared with 295 in 2023, with police data showing a six per cent increase in the number of single fatal collisions.
There were 18 people who lost their lives on North East roads last year, including two within the Rural City of Wangaratta on Wangaratta-Beechworth Road.
Vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, motorcyclists, cyclists and e-scooter riders made up 45 per cent of all lives lost on Victorian roads in 2024.
A total 149 lives were lost on regional roads, down from 172 in 2023.
Police identified single acts of non-compliance or people making basic driving errors contributed to more than half of fatalities in 2024.
These are behaviours such as low-range speeding, lower-level drink driving, failing to obey road signs and distraction, like using a mobile phone while driving.
