Safety focus heats up
Man freed for time served
THE Surf Coast has been identified as a road trauma hot spot as police prepare to ramp up safety enforcement this long weekend.
New data shows two people were killed on the region’s roads over the Labour Day long weekend in recent years.
According to the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), 140 people were injured in crashes across Geelong, Colac Otway, Queenscliff and Surf Coast during March in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Police fear a spike in road trauma and deaths as thousands of people flock to tourism hot spots for a Labour Day three-day break.
Police will roll out Operation Arid from Friday and are expecting a high volume of vehicles peeling off the main arterials to travel to campgrounds roads.
Officers will target priority areas across the eastern and western corridors, popular holiday destinations such as the Surf Coast and Mornington Peninsula, as well as metropolitan Melbourne.
Geelong Highway Patrol Senior Sergeant Craig Stevens said booze buses would be deployed across the region. He warned all drivers should expect along feeder to be tested for drugs and alcohol.
“We are expecting lots of regional travel, recreational activities and with that there will be an increase in traffic across the region,” Sergeant Stevens said.
“Our main priority is prevention. We will be highly visible and you will experience an increase in police activity.”
He also urged drivers to look out for vulnerable road users, with cycling and motorbike riding, day trips and camping in national parks all forming part of the predictions for an increase in traffic over the long weekend.
TAC head of road safety Samantha Cockfield said fatigue was a key factor in one in four crashes in regional Victoria.
“People are prone to getting tired behind the wheel when driving long distances, and we know fatigue is a leading cause of deaths and injuries,” Ms Cockfield said.
“More often than not we can avoid tragedies on our roads if we just get the basics right, like getting good rest the night before a trip, travelling within the speed limit and for the conditions, putting the phone away, and not drinkdriving.”
Operation Arid will run until 11.59pm on Monday
A MAN who punched a woman in the mouth and threatened to burn her house down after getting into an argument about a birth certificate has been jailed.
Dillon Pugliese, 26, held the woman known to him against her will in a fit of rage about 9pm on December 6 last year, the Geelong Magistrates Court heard.
When the argument escalated, the 28-year-old woman fled to a bedroom at the Norlane home but Pugliese followed her and refused to let her leave.
When the victim tried to flee to a friend’s house, Pugliese told her he would burn the house down if she didn’t return in 10 minutes.
Pugliese was arrested four days after he assaulted the woman when she gave a statement to police.
Pugliese was also sentenced after he used a metal pole to smash in the window of a car.
On July 10 last year, a delivery driver swerved into the path of a car driven by his heavily pregnant partner to avoid an accident.
After the incident on The Boulevard, North Geelong, Pugliese demanded his partner follow the delivery driver for about 600m to the Thompson Road intersection.
At the traffic lights, Pugliese got out of the car with a metal pole and demanded the victim get out of his van.
The victim tried to drive away but Pugliese smashed in the car’s window, leaving the victim with cuts to his face.
At a court hearing earlier this year Pugliese said he felt remorse because of his actions, and he needed help for his cannabis addiction.
This week he was jailed for 82 days but has served that time on remand.
He pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment, assault, drug driving, driving while disqualified, property damage, assault, motorbike theft and drug possession and other offending.
Pugliese will have to undergo a 12month community corrections order.
Magistrate Jelena Popovic ordered Pugliese return to court in June so she could determine how he was progressing on the order.