Ex-drug detective still fighting speed

SPECIALIST road police are patrolling high-risk roads at the most dangerous times under a new Geelong-based initiative aimed at further curbing the region’s road trauma.

New Geelong Highway Patrol boss Senior-Sergeant Gary Wilson says officers have been using heat maps to determine the region’s most dangerous roads so police can be effectively deployed and rostered to monitor and enforce road rules in these high-risk, high-trauma areas.

New data shows fatalities in the Geelong local government area dropped 64.3 per cent in the past financial year, while deaths on Surf Coast roads increased from four to 10. Serious injuries declined. Sen-Sgt Wilson said the data encapsulated three months of the heat mapping trial, which would be further rolled out.

“We’ve started in the last three months an initiative where we are targeting our shifts around trauma locations,” Sen-Sgt Wilson said. “We use analytical data to essentially heat map areas for where our high impact areas and times are.”

Police say lack of driver experience and impaired drivers are contributing to major trauma on the region’s roads.

Latest statistics show drug drivers are outstripping alcohol-affected motorists on roads in the Geelong region.

Ninety-one people tested positive to driving on Geelong region roads while drug-affected during the 2017-18 financial year.

Sen-Sgt Wilson said most drivers were affected by methylamphetamine, followed by cannabis, and were aged between 19 and 40.

He labelled the statistics