By JESSE GRAHAM AND KATH GANNAWAY
“JUST a little bit over … ” drivers should know the rest of that highly publicised ‘drink-drive’ slogan, but with 11 drivers detected over .05 in Yarra Ranges over the Australia Day weekend, police are saying there are still a lot of “bloody idiots” not getting the message.
Sergeant Simon Coverley from Yarra Ranges Highway Patrol said the operation was well publicised.
“We’re telling people that we’re going out there and you will be checked, but there are drivers who still think they can drink to excess and then drive cars,” he said.
“I think the message for a while there was getting through, but it appears from the figures we’re detecting, with people just over the limit with readings of .07, .08 and .09, it’s starting to slip back.
He said that often the excuse people gave was that they didn’t think they were over the limit, and that they were fine to drive.
“If there’s a chance you might be over, or just over, just don’t drive,” he said.
Cardinia/Casey Highway Patrol Acting Senior Sergeant, Pat Green, said the message was getting through in the hills, with only four drivers detected drink driving over the Australia Day weekend.
“Cardinia Highway Patrol conducts a large number of preliminary breath tests each year – due to this high level of enforcement, we find that the message has got through to the majority of drivers,” Sen Sgt Green said.
“Unfortunately, there are still a few who don’t heed our warnings and this will not be tolerated under any circumstances.”
Driving over the speed limit was another area of concern with 110 speeding offences detected in the Yarra Ranges and 30 in the Cardinia area.
Sgt Coverley said it was another disappointing figure with speed, along with drink driving the biggest killers on the road, and the message, again, well publicised.
Other Yarra Ranges offences included 40 unregistered vehicles, eight unlicensed drivers, four disqualified or suspended drivers, four mobile phone users, three people disobeying signs or signals and two seat belt offences.
Cardinia police, meanwhile, caught three disqualified or suspended drivers, eight unregistered vehicles, two people using their phones while driving, two people disobeying road signs or signals and five people not wearing their seatbelt.
Sen Sgt Green said that the majority of motorists followed the law, and that police appreciated that fact.
“To those who are doing the right thing, we appreciate what you do,” he said.
“We appreciate your commitment to reducing road trauma, because it impacts our whole community, and we encourage you to ring triple zero if you feel that a driver is behaving poorly.”
For those flouting the law, he said the penalties would be severe.
“People need to be aware that Cardinia Highway Patrol members are actively enforcing road laws 24/7, and we have a zero-tolerance approach with our objective to reduce road trauma.”
The provisional road toll for 2015 is 26 as of Monday 2 February – one death down from the same time in 2014.
