Thousands of drivers caught over long weekend

From 12.01am on Friday, March 7 until 11.59pm on Monday, March 10, police detected 4952 traffic offences.

Speeding offences made up almost half of the detections, with 2330 speeding offences recorded.

Of those, 75 per cent of drivers caught speeding were driving between 10km/h and 25km/h over the speed limit.

Police also conducted 69,116 preliminary breath tests, with one in every 455 motorists tested caught drink-driving.

There were 4266 roadside drug tests conducted, with 197 drivers testing positive.

Over 300 drivers who were either unlicensed, disqualified or suspended from driving were also caught.

Road Policing Acting Assistant Commissioner David Byrt said most drivers were driving safely over the four days.

“While the majority of drivers were doing the right thing and driving safely over the long weekend, disappointingly we continue to detect far too many motorists disregarding the road rules,” he said.

“Speeding even a little bit over the limit significantly increases your risk of being involved in road trauma, and yet the majority of those we caught speeding this weekend were considerably over the limit.

“We will continue to have zero tolerance for those who blatantly choose to speed on our roads — this behaviour puts not only the driver at risk of the collision, but all other road users.”

A total of 61 lives have been lost on Victorian roads this year, up from 58 at the same time last year.

Police are reminding motorists that they will be out anywhere, any time across March, with the month considered the most dangerous period on Victorian roads.

“Collisions involving speed have historically been at their highest during March, so we need motorists to take their foot off the accelerator, slow down and stick to the speed limit,” Asst Comm Byrt said.

“During this high-risk month of March, police will continue to have a major presence on roads across the state — we are doing everything we can to drive down trauma on our roads.”