HIGHWAY REPEL
Blow ins face $1334 fine in M1 Easter holiday crackdown
POLICE will target holidaymakers and day trippers coming down the M1 to the Gold Coast this Easter long weekend in the battle to slow the spread of coronavirus.
From today, Gold Coast police will patrol the M1 southern lanes, pulling over out-of-town cars and giving them two options - go home, or go home with a $1334 fine.
Gold Coast Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said the clear message was don’t come unless it’s essential travel.
HOLIDAYMAKERS and day trippers are risking more than just a sunburn if caught coming down the M1 to go to Gold Coast beaches this Easter long weekend.
From today, Gold Coast police will patrol the M1 southern lanes, pulling over out-of-town cars and giving them two options; go home, or go home with a $1334 fine.
The tough new measures are aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus, with the Easter break seen as a battleground in the war against the continued spread.
Police will have a beefed up presence on the road, with cops also expected to use covert strategies to capture those trying to flout non-essential travel guidelines.
And it won’t just be drivers stung with a fines. Every person inside the car, if found to be undertaking non-essential travel can expect to cop a hit to their wallet.
Gold Coast Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said the clear message was don’t come unless it’s essential travel.
“Over the Easter period there will be significant police resources allocated to the operation and that will be their sole function for the break,” Supt Wheeler said.
“Predominantly they will be focused on the southbound lanes of the M1 and it will be done in a mobile capacity, they will intercept vehicles, they will speak to the occupants of the vehicles and work out if they’re engaged in essential travel.
“If they’re clearly not engaged in essential travel, appropriate action will be taken.
“It’s a conversation between the officer and the member of the public, ideally we don’t want people travelling down at all, but where we identify people who are, we will speak to them, but there is always an option to issue an infringement notice.
“The message is, don’t get yourself in that position, don’t travel to the Gold Coast for the long weekend and don’t travel unless it’s essential.”
Supt Wheeler said police would funnel a lot of resources into the operation aimed at saving lives.
“Police resources are being allocated to do this when we simply shouldn’t have to. If people do the right thing, we won’t be dedicating police resources to do this kind of thing.
“Unfortunately what we’ve seen over the last week, we really have no option, because every bit of non-essential travel poses a risk to people travelling and the wider community. This is about trying to stop the spread of COVID-19, not trying to make people’s live unnecessarily difficult.
“Don’t waste police resources, don’t waste police time. Stay at home, we’re trying to save people’s lives, not try and make them harder,” he said.
Cars pull-overs would be based on intelligence including where registered but also at random, he said.
“We can easily check while we’re driving where a car is registered to and when we engage with the driver of the vehicle, we’ll be able to find out very quickly where they are from,” he said.
“This is non-essential travel (coming down for a holiday or day trip), you’ve got two choices, one you return home, or the other one is you return home and you get an infringement notice.
“Everyone in that vehicle has made that conscious decision to do non-essential travel, so we would certainly consider to issue fines for everyone in that car, not just the driver.”
Police would use all of their resources to capture people thumbing their nose at the non-essential travel guidelines, he said.
“People can expect to see an overt police presence, but there will also be a covert police presence, there is CCTV technology that we can rely on, we have direct feeds into our operation centre and we do have the ability to follow up later.
“Police also have automated number plate recognition technology, just because you weren’t intercepted, does not mean there won’t be follow-up.
“The people who ran the border at Miles St, thought they got away with it, until they got a phone call from a police officer a couple of days later and they’ve all worn a $1334 ticket.”
DON’T TRAVEL TO THE GOLD COAST FOR THE LONG WEEKEND AND DON’T TRAVEL UNLESS IT’S ESSENTIAL TRAVEL
CHIEF SUPT MARK WHEELER
WE live in strange times. Who would have thought even a few weeks ago that police patrols would be stopping cars on the M1 and telling families to return home?
Or that people in beachside suburbs would be posting signs telling others to stay away? Or that three of the city’s major beaches would be closed and bright orange flags strung across car parks along all our golden stretches of sand would be sending a not-so-subtle message to out-of-towners or those from other suburbs to go home?
For a city built on sun, surf, sand and tourism, such actions would normally be madness. But these are not normal times. These are days when a far greater evil threatens lives and is already shattering the world economy, and not just that of a city whose lifeblood is lost each time a disappointed tour group or family wanting to feel the sea breeze and the sand between toes this Easter is told to go away.
These extreme measures, put in place to protect lives as the coronavirus pandemic runs amok across the globe, are hurting us just as much as they are hurting others.
But we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.
Every action that blocks visitors puts another brick in a wall of disappointment that will have to be carefully dismantled when this crisis passes.
It will be a huge challenge for not only the city’s tourism industry but other sectors as well – particularly education and retail – to win back the people who had previously wanted to holiday here or to attend our schools and universities.
Communities too will have to go the extra mile to make others welcome again.
This should not be used as an excuse by groups such as surfers to prolong “locals only” attitudes.
Mayor Tom Tate makes the point that we love everyone but for the moment and for the sake of lives, people must observe social distancing until the virus is busted.
For now, each of us has no choice but to do our bit.