Police detected close to 5,000 traffic offences during a major road safety blitz over the Labour Day long weekend in Victoria.
Operation Arid saw police targeting high-risk driving behaviour across the state over four days, in an effort to drive down road trauma.
Speeding offences made up almost half of all detections, with 75 per cent of drivers caught speeding between 10km/h and 25km/h over the speed limit.
Police conducted 69,166 preliminary breath tests, with one in every 455 motorists tested caught drink driving.
A further 197 drivers returned a positive roadside drug test, with 4,266 roadside drug tests conducted.
Over 300 drivers who shouldn’t be on the road because they were either unlicensed, disqualified or suspended from driving were caught over the four days.
Police also issued 227 infringements to motorists for disobeying traffic signs or signals, 145 for mobile offences, and 99 for seatbelt non-compliance.
There were two fatal collisions over the weekend, including a single-vehicle collision at Buffalo River, and a two-vehicle collision on the Western Highway at Buangor, both on Saturday.
A total 61 lives have been lost on Victorian roads this year, up from 58 at the same time last year.
Police are reminding motorists they will continue to be outacross the state’s roads this month, with March considered the most dangerous period on Victorian roads.
Injury collisions in both metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria have historically peaked during March, with 30 fatalities recorded during March 2024 – the highest since 34 were recorded in 2011.
