Australia: Zero deaths on national day of action

  • August 28, 2019

A police officer holds a placard saying #Enough, asking motorists to be aware of their driving. (Screengrab/Victoria Police)

The message was heard loud and clear yesterday as police from across the nation joined forces to say enough to road trauma.

Victoria could not have asked for a better result with no one losing their life on the road during the National Day of Action operation.

Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said he was pleased with this outcome and commended the efforts of police across the state.

“The feedback we received throughout the day was that many Victorians either saw, or directly interacted with police on the roadside,” AC Stephen Leane said.

“We wanted to re-direct the communities’ attention to road trauma and the importance of abiding by the road rules, and the National Day of Action did exactly that.”

The initiative however didn’t stop some speedsters on the road, with 1,014 speeding offences detected in just 24 hours.

On average, one in every 19 drivers that were drug tested were found to be under the influence of illicit substances with 63 returning positive results. Meanwhile 27 motorists were caught drink driving.

“While we were pleased that no family had to receive that dreaded knock on the door, it was still a concern how many people chose to break the law,” AC Leane said.

“We need people to be travelling at the right speed for the road and speed limits make that happen.”

More than 2672 traffic offences were detected in Victoria and included:

• 51 disqualified/suspended drivers

• 90 unlicensed drivers

• 240 unregistered vehicles

• 1,014 speeding offences

• 255 mobile phone offences

• 243 disobey signs/signal

• 37 vehicle impounds

• 75 seatbelt offences

On a national scale 8574 traffic offences were detected, which included

• 103 breath tests that returned a positive result

• 161 drug tests that returned a positive result

• 4012 speeding offences

• 213 seatbelt and restraint offences

• 4085 other traffic offences

Nationally 56913 breath tests were conducted as well as 2298 drug tests.

The National Day of Action was a one day road policing operation running across the country on Tuesday 27 August 2019.