New police unit to patrol highway
ANYONE driving on the Warrego Highway from Toowoomba to Brisbane can expect to be sharing the road with at least one police officer.
It doesn’t matter what time of day, officers will have a 24hour, seven-days-a-week presence on the road with the opening of a Highway Patrol office at the Laidley police state.
Sergeant Ray van den Bosch will head up the new team and said his officers would make themselves known.
“We will focus on re-establishing the static roadside breath test sites, and we will be working in partnership with the Department of Main Roads and Transport for compliance checks of vehicles and sobriety checks of drivers.
“My officers and I are roadside drug testers as well.
“We have the facilities to proceed against a driver caught with a relevant drug in their saliva.”
The move comes after the Lockyer population grew by an average of 8-12 per cent annually for the past few years.
Extra residents meant extra police were needed to ensure public safety and prevent the loss of life or serious injury from traffic crashes.
Sgt van den Bosch said speeding was a common offence detected on the Warrego Highway and was something his officers were keen to tackle.
“When people think no one is around they let their speeds get quite high but it gives them no time to stop,” he said.
“We also see a lot of lanechanging offences where drivers are not giving themselves the time and space they need, especially around heavy vehicles.
“We still have wildlife that comes onto the road so we need to give ourselves time to take evasive action.”
The unit will run a 24-hour shift rotation with three veteran officers in the patrol.
They will be further supported by two additional general duties officers stationed at the Laidley Police Station.
Darling Downs Country Patrol Group Inspector Danny Shaw said the officers would be deployed across the Lockyer Valley.
“They will be writing a lot of tickets,” he said.
“It is in nature and their core focus is about making the roads safer for everyone to traverse.”
Emergency responses will be a focus after the highway was cut several times in the past two years by flood water.
“In one instance in February up to 46 people who were trapped on the road, could not get out and were rescued by water police and Queensland Fire and Emergency Services,” he said.
“These officers will be deployed to assist in those disasters.”
They will be writing a lot of tickets. DARLING DOWNS COUNTRY PATROL GROUP INSPECTOR DANNY SHAW