January 4th, 2023Not so wise: dangerous driving behaviour alarms police in Operation Roadwise

Police say they’re alarmed at the number of drivers who were recently caught breaking road rules during the first week of Operation Roadwise.

Operation Roadwise commenced at 12:01am on Friday 16 December and concluded at 23:59pm on Tuesday 27 December.

In the first six days of the statewide road policing operation, Victoria Police detected 6,970 traffic offences, which is 15 per cent more than the same time last year.

Police conducted 103,943 preliminary breath tests, with 255 drivers detected for drink driving, whilst one in every thirteen motorists tested for drugs have returned a positive roadside drug test.

Mid-range speeding between 10km/h and 25km/h has resulted in the most infringements issued (1,854), with speeding offences overall making up 35 per cent of all detections.

Mobile phone use has resulted in a costly Christmas for 444 motorists, each receiving a $555 fine and 4 demerit points.

Automatic numberplate recognition technology has also helped police to identify 496 unauthorised drivers, who are either suspended, disqualified or unlicenced to drive and should not be on the roads.

A summary of traffic offences detected during just the first six days of Operation Roadwise, included:

• 255 drink driving offences from 103,943 preliminary breath tests

• 209 drug driving offences from 2,626 roadside drug tests

• 233 disqualified/suspended drivers

• 263 unlicensed drivers

• 713 unregistered vehicles

• 2,418 speeding offences (1,854 for between 10km/h and 25km/h)

• 444 mobile phone offences

• 368 disobey signs/signals

• 202 seatbelt offences

• 170 vehicle impoundments