By XAVIER SMERDON
ALMOST 600 drivers were caught flouting the law over the holiday season as Victoria Police ran their annual Summer road enforcement campaign.
More than 15,000 breath tests were carried out in Wyndham during the campaign, which ran from 18 November to 8 January.
A total of 216 drivers were caught speeding while 154 were nabbed while driving unlicensed or suspended.
A further 45 were caught over the legal blood alcohol limit.
Acting Chief Commissioner Kieran Walshe said the statewide results of the campaign showed that drivers were getting the message to play it safe with one in every 432 drivers returning breath tests over the limit – a significant improvement on the rate of one in 332 last year.
“It is disappointing that more than 2600 drink drivers were caught by police. The behaviour of each one of these drivers could have resulted in a tragedy”, Mr Walshe said.
“But to see such a significant reduction in the number of motorists driving with alcohol in their system is encouraging.”
But just days after the campaign ended a 19-year-old Hoppers Crossing man had his car impounded for trying to evade police when he tried to evade a booze bus Old Geelong Rd.
The Wyndham Highway Patrol said that once the man saw the booze bus he made a U turn over the median strip before being stopped by police.
To make matters worse he also had three other teenage passengers in the car and was towing a trailer at the time.
His car was impounded for 30 days after he told police he ran because his licence was suspended and he only had seven more days before the suspension period lapsed.
Senior Constable Jerome Murnane of the Highway Patrol said he did not know what drivers were thinking when they tried to evade police.
“To try and outrun or evade the police is foolish, to do so whilst towing a trailer and having three other innocent people in the car, as well as driving the way he did, really makes one wonder where the sense is, or lack of, and what goes through their mind,” Sen Const Murnane said.
