POLICE detected over 130 offences during an ongoing road safety operation across Victoria’s west in July.
Operation West Connect saw highway patrol units enforcing across major arterials in Western Victoria targeting high-risk driving behaviour associated with road trauma.
It comes as 141 lives have been lost on the state’s roads so far this year, with 44 of those occurring on roads in Western Victoria.
Bendigo, Campaspe and the Macedon Ranges division has been the worst affected area in the state’s west with 13 lives lost this year, followed by the Ballarat and Moorabool division with a further nine lives lost.
There have been seven fatalities in the Horsham/Northern Grampians division, followed by five fatalities each in the Warrnambool/Southern Grampians, Geelong/Surf Coast, and the Mildura/Swan Hill divisions.
There have been 11 fatal collisions on roads in Western Victoria to date in July.
Operation West Connect is an ongoing operation focused on detecting speeding, distracted and impaired drivers.
Almost half of the offences detected in July were for speeding, with the majority of speeding drivers detected between 10 kilometres per hour and 25km/h over the speed limit.
In total were 132 offences detected during Operation West Connect, and Police conducted 469 preliminary breath tests and 44 preliminary oral fluid tests for drugs, detecting 12 drug driving offences and one drink driving offence.
The rest of the offences detected during Operation West Connect on Monday 22 July 2024 included 62 speeding offences; 15 unregistered vehicles; seven disqualified/suspended and unlicenced drivers; six seatbelt offences; five heavy vehicle offences; three vehicle impoundments; two mobile phone offences; and one disobey traffic signal.
Operation West Connect will continue across Western Victoria – encompassing major arterial roads from Geelong, Bacchus Marsh, Bendigo and Echuca as far west as the SA Border, and from the Surf Coast, Warrnambool and Portland as far north as the NSW Border.
Western Region Road Policing Inspector, Justine Ryan said the road safety operation will continue to run to help keep motorists safe on our roads.
“Unfortunately, it’s been a terrible period on roads in Western Victoria, with 11 lives lost to date in the last month alone,” she said.
“We’re continuing to run Operation West Connect to help keep all road users safe on roads out in the state’s west and drive down these high levels of road trauma we’re experiencing.
“Speeding continues to be a major contributing factor to serious injury and fatal collisions on regional roads, and yet we overwhelmingly throughout this operation, we continue to catch so many people going over the speed limit.
“Slowing down and sticking to the speed limit, as well as something as simple as putting on your seat belt, are things we can all do to remain safe on the roads”
