Victoria Police will be out in force targeting unsafe driving this long weekend.
Victoria Police’s Operation Arid will run for four days with police targeting high-risk driving and non-compliance in an effort to reduce road trauma.
Operation Arid commences at 12.01am on Friday, March 10 and concludes at 11.59pm on Monday, March 13.
It comes as Victoria recorded 68 lives lost in the first 66 days of the year – 18 more than at the same time last year and a 45 per cent increase on the five-year average.
Intelligence shows more than half of this year’s fatalities resulted from single-vehicle collisions, with two-thirds occurring on rural roads and 80 per cent of those involving vehicles leaving the road and colliding with a roadside object – predominately trees.
Speed, distraction, fatigue and not wearing a seatbelt are major contributors to single-vehicle fatal collisions.
Victoria Police Road Policing Assistant Commissioner Glenn Weir said the long weekend will be a busy period for Victorians travelling to and from events and tourist hotspots.
“We’re anticipating lots of Victorians hitting the roads over the coming days,” he said.
“We’ll be out with our full contingent of police vehicles to ensure everyone is doing their bit to keep themselves and all other road users safe.
“It’s up to all of us to turn this around and while police will be out enforcing at every opportunity, we cannot achieve this alone.”
