By VANESSA VALENZUELA
MORE than 900 reckless drivers were caught committing crimes and flouting the law in Brimbank during the Christmas holiday period.
The Summer Stay road enforcement campaign encouraged motorists to stay safe or stay off the road over the high-risk holiday period and ran for 52 days from 16 November until 6 January.
Figures released last week reveal police conducted 20,333 preliminary breath tests over the holiday period with 33 motorists nabbed for being over the legal limit.
A total of 256 motorists were caught speeding down Brimbank roads and 248 residents were driving unregistered vehicles.
The figures also show 117 unlicensed drivers were caught driving down roads in the municipality and 136 motorists were fined for mobile phone offences.
There were 78 disqualified drivers on the roads during the Summer Stay campaign and 59 drivers risked their lives by refusing to wear a seatbelt.
Brimbank Highway Patrol Sergeant Rod Stein said he is concerned that drivers still continue to flout the law without thinking about their safety and the safety of others.
Sgt Stein said many motorists think they can get away with disobeying the law but new technology is helping police crack down on unlicensed drivers and unregistered vehicles.
“There is now new technology we have, ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) that automatically reads and checks number plates,” Sgt Stein said.
“Driving around and obeying the law doesn’t mean you won’t be caught. Our systems will pick it up and we will intercept you.”
Sgt Stein said he was glad to see a drop in the number of fatalities on roads in Brimbank last year, but believes the numbers of unnecessary deaths is still too high.
“We had no fatalities over the holiday period which is always good news and Brimbank ended up with six fatalities for the whole year,” Sgt Stein said.
“It’s average for us, but it’s six more than we would have liked to have. We would like that number down to zero.”
During the Summer Stay enforcement campaign, police breath-tested more than 1.2 million road users and nabbed 5045 unregistered vehicles, 6559 unregistered Vechicles and 2863 drunk drivers on Victoria’s roads.
More than 24,000 motorists were nabbed for speeding, 3299 drivers were caught not wearing seatbelts and 6077 were fined for using their mobile phones.
Assistant Commissioner for Road Policing Robert Hill said it was disappointing to see people who knew they shouldn’t be behind the wheel put other roads users in danger.
“Unauthorised and impaired drivers have no place on our roads at any time of the year, yet we continue to see significant numbers detected,” he said.
“We need to see more responsibility, not only from the drivers themselves but from their passengers, their friends, their colleagues – if you know someone’s had too much to drink, don’t let them drive home.
