A 20-year-old man from Aintree is among three dozen drink/drug drivers caught by police in a massive two-night highway operation on the Nepean Highway.
Three booze buses at Elsternwick produced more than 6500 breath tests conducted on the evenings of 12 and 13 December in a bid to reduce road trauma in the lead up to Christmas.
Several drivers have been accused of attempting to avoid the highly visible breath testing by turning off the highway, unaware that Moorabbin and Prahran Highway Patrol officers were lying in wait.
The 20-year-old Aintree man stopped in the slip lane prior to entering the breath testing site before being intercepted by Highway Patrol officers.
He allegedly returned a positive preliminary breath test, before refusing an evidentiary test.
He is expected to appear in court via summons and faces a two-year loss of licence, possible imprisonment and a monetary fine.
A 29-year-old Springvale man, 30-year-old Brighton man, 40-year-old Patterson Lakes man and a 23-year-old Prahran woman were also among those nabbed for drink driving and attempting to avoid the breath-testing site.
The two-night operation also resulted in the arrest of a 15-year-old boy with outstanding warrants and a 47-year-old man who was allegedly driving a stolen car, located with a traffickable quantity of cannabis and in possession of a controlled weapon.
Moorabbin Highway Patrol Senior Sergeant Stuart Saunders said “road trauma caused by impaired motorists is completely avoidable.”
“It simply does not have to happen. The fact that so many motorists were also trying to avoid detection clearly shows that they had chosen to risk driving whilst impaired,” he said.
“Time and time again, we see drivers taking reckless risks and putting countless people in serious danger.”
