Police issue road toll warning

A STERN message has been issued as part of a winter warning for school holiday drivers to make sure they don’t add to this year’s statewide road toll of 116 deaths.

Townsville Road Policing Unit officer- in- charge Senior Sergeant Brendan White warned police would be out in numbers to catch drivers offending behind the wheel.

The statewide Operation Cold Snap kicks off today and will run through school holidays and across the first week back of school.

With the V8 Supercars Townsville 400 landing in the midst of school holidays, SenSgt White said extra road police would be in town.

“If you do something there’s a fair chance there’ll be a police bike or a car in your rear vision mirror watching you do it,” Sen- Sgt White said.

Extra resources from Brisbane would come up before and after the Townsville 400, including additional drug testing units.

Road Policing Unit officers will come into town from Cairns, Innisfail and Mackay to bolster the number of mobile patrols.

Sen- Sgt White said they noticed an increase in speeding and driving- related offences on the second day of the Townsville 400. He said increased focus would be on drug driving, as drink driving offences were starting to decline as the message sunk in.

“Drink driving has sort of been reduced, people just know not to do it,” he said.

“We still catch a few idiots that do, but the majority of people are pretty good, but we’ve got to get the same mindset with drug use.”