Cop these bikes to keep us safe

FOUR new police vehicles aim to provide a high-profile reminder to Tasmanian motorists to stay safe on the state’s roads.

Police Minister Mark Shelton unveiled the new BMW police motorcycles yesterday, which will join a range of marked and unmarked vehicles enforcing road safety across Tasmania.

“These new vehicles begin the replacement of the current fleet of motorcycles, and 10 more BMW police motorcycles will arrive for deployment around the state over May and June,” Mr Shelton said.

He said the four motorcycles would be split between the Western and Northern districts, and believed about seven or eight of the incoming 10 motorcycles would stay in Hobart.

Tasmania Police Constable Simon Schuringa said police bikes enabled police to get from point A to point B quicker than a normal vehicle — a big advantage when needing to attend scenes or crashes. The new additions had been a long time coming, he said, with the bikes three to four years old and having driven up to 160,000km.

“These new bikes will be a great addition to our force and our enforcement out on the road.

“They have some excellent capabilities, very good for manoeuvring, and the new addition to the bike is a GPS unit which enables us to find out where we are.”

Acting Deputy Commissioner Jonathan Higgins said the motorcycle riders went through significant training to be able to take on the role, and spent many hours on the bikes during their shifts.

He said they played a key role in monitoring high risk behaviours — such as drink and drug driving, high speed, mobile phone usage and not wearing a seatbelt — to “ensure that our roads continue to be safe”.