In an effort to prevent further road tragedies, police have launched a new pilot program focusing on road policing and enforcement in high-risk locations.
The program, named Halo-20, began on Monday, March 3 and will be in action for six months across the Goulburn Valley, Mitchell and Benalla regions.
Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said the road toll of 58 at the start of the operation was at an “incredibly unacceptable level”, partly due to “non-compliance with simple acts of road behaviour”.
“Overall, we have a lot of people who do display a lot of reckless behaviour,” he said.
“Going that bit too fast, disobeying that red light, punching through a light because you think you can make it or going through a stop sign without stopping — that's a lack of respect.”
Shepparton police Acting Sergeant Trent Marks said this kind of behaviour was contributing to the road toll, which was at 10 more deaths than the same time in 2024.
“As a community and as a police force, we can’t accept this figure to be the norm,” he said.
“We are asking every driver on our roads to check your behaviour, concentrate on your surroundings and obey simple road rules.
“Simple lack of judgments are proving fatal.
“We don’t want it to be the moment where it’s too late, that drivers realise that their error of judgment will be the last decision they ever make.”
Acting Sgt Marks said while conducting speed checks on the Peter Ross-Edwards Causeway at about 8am on Monday, March 3, he caught a 21-year-old Mooroopna woman “weaving through heavy traffic” at 99km/h in the 80km/h speed zone because she was “running late for work”.
He said although most drivers were doing the right thing, the woman made “a dangerous error in judgment that could’ve proved costly in peak-hour traffic”.
“She was advised to give her boss a ring to notify them that she was running late, instead of not making it to work at all,” he said.
She received a $395 fine and three demerit points.
21°C