Police in Wellington and East Gippsland are alarmed at the number of drivers who continue to be caught breaking road rules.
Those caught speeding and drink driving have been of particular concern.
Single acts of non-compliance, or basic driving errors, contributed to more than half of fatalities in Victoria last year. This includes speeding, lower-level drink driving, failing to obey road signs and distraction.
In response to this, Wellington Local Area Commander Inspector, Mel McLennan and Acting Inspector ED6 Command, Luke Banwell have made a plea to motorists to drive safer in 2024.
Inspector McLennan has described 2023 as “an absolute disastrous year on our roads, right across the state of Victoria”.
“We don’t want a repeat (of last year), so we’re just asking members of our community to take some responsibility for their driving their actions behind the wheel,” Inspector McLennan said.
“Drink driving is still a feature in our road trauma. So if you’re going to have a drink, don’t drive.
“Appoint someone that can drive you home, get a taxi, or either a bus or train … just reduce the capacity for serious incidents on our roads. That’s the message.”
In the new year, police will be focusing their enforcement on areas that experienced high levels of road trauma last year. This includes roads where drivers were caught drink or drug driving, speeding, or using a mobile phone.
Intercepts will be routine, even if the motorist hasn’t done anything wrong.
“So expect to be pulled over,” Inspector McLennan said.
Inspector McLennan said road trauma affects the entire community, including the families of victims, witnesses and emergency service personnel.
“Obviously, emergency services personnel get to see the worst things that happen in society, and road trauma is one of those horrific things that police and other emergency services personnel are exposed to,” she said.
“It can impact some police members and their mental health … some of those scenes that we go to are absolutely horrific and are lasting memories for most of emergency services personnel that attend.”
Inspector McLennan and Acting Inspector ED6 Command, Luke Banwell were both baffled at seatbelt non-compliance, which was a significant contributor to the shocking road safety statistics.
“We’ve had a lot of people ejected from vehicles because they haven’t had their seatbelts on and they sustained horrific injuries, if not death as a result of that,” Inspector McLennan said.
“Your seatbelt would lock you into your seat to prevent you from being thrown out of the vehicle.
“It’s one of the safest things you can do. It takes the smallest amount of time to just put your seatbelt across and buckle in. So we don’t quite understand that behaviour.”
Acting Inspector Banwell wanted to remind people of the number of serious injuries on roads, not just deaths.
“That seems to be the forgotten figure in ED6, which is Wellington and East Gippsland, where we had seven deaths and 127 injuries,” he said.
Data suggests that Wellington and East Gippsland have fewer road incidents than most other parts of Victoria, but nonetheless, the numbers were concerning.
Acting Inspector Banwell also took aim at mobile phone distraction, which is exacerbated by speed and other distractions.
“Unfortunately in today’s society, as soon as our mobile device makes noise, we are distracted,” he said.
“Even if we don’t look away, your mind is distracted by what’s going on with that mobile device. And that’s causing probably the most grief around the place.”
Acting Inspector Luke Banwell said road safety enforcement was a key focus, because education and “traumatic ads” were not as effective as they once were, with drivers becoming desensitised to them.
He also stated road trauma increased across the country in areas with less enforcement.
Inspector McLennan had already expressed concern a number of months ago to the Gippsland Times about the new trend of increasing seatbelt non-compliance.
“The incidents of failing to wear seatbelts is becoming more prevalent in fatal and serious injury collisions right across the eastern region within Victoria Police, particularly in the regional, rural areas,” Inspector McLennan said at the time.
“We’ve had a 33 per cent increase in seatbelt offences in our injury statistics from the start of the year, that is, seatbelts are not being worn, people are not complying with the law.”
