Drugged drivers nabbed

Police catch twice as many motorists on drugs

GEELONG Police nabbed a swag of dangerous drivers during the Grand Final weekend, detecting more than 160 offences.

Police detected one driver with a blood alcohol reading of 0.148, three times the legal blood alcohol limit, during the four-day Operation Scoreboard.

Authorities also pinged 23 motorists for unregistered vehicles, 90 speeding drivers and six unlicensed drivers.

Eight motorists were caught drink-driving and 16 returned positive tests for drugs.

Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said it was disappointing to see so many people make the conscious decision to drink or take drugs and get behind the wheel.

“Everyone wants to have a good time on the footy grand final weekend, but unfortunately due to poor choices some people were either hit with a fine, lost demerits or had their car impounded,” AC Stephen Leane said.

“Saying this, the majority of people did the right thing and were able to enjoy the weekend for all it had to offer.

Meanwhile, seven motorists were caught disobeying traffic signals, five seatbelt offences were detected and there were five mobile phone offences.

Two people had their vehicles impounded.

Geelong Highway Patrol Acting Senior Sergeant Peter Quick said Geelong had a real problem with motorists driving under the influence of alcohol.

“We found that we are still getting some DUIs which is not brilliant,” he said.

“We still are probably the second highest in the state for DUIs which is not great. “We still had some high readings 0.148 — for a drink-driver that I know of — near Torquay.”

Sen-Sgt Quick said motorists who disobeyed the law were selfish and putting other people’s lives at risk.

He said no lives were lost on roads in the region during the weekend.

“Drivers need to start getting the message that it’s not about you — it’s about others on the road,” he said. “We didn’t have any fatals in the area which was brilliant — only two serious collisions.”

The state’s road toll is already 38 per cent higher than last year, with 209 lives lost on the roads in the year to September 29 compared to 152 lives in 2018.

This year’s road fatalities have already surpassed the state’s five-year average of 186.