Police will be out in numbers on some of Melton’s highest risk rural roads as the highway patrol bolsters efforts to target speeding drivers and lower the road toll.
As part of the TAC-funded Operation Cast, police will target Hopkins Road in Truganina, Melton Highway in Plumpton, Diggers Rest-Coimadai Road in Toolern Vale, Gisborne-Melton Road in Toolern Vale and Vineyard Road in Diggers Rest.
Sergeant Chris Stuhldreier said these were the top-five areas for road trauma in the Melton service area.
He said police would focus on speed, distraction and impaired driving at different times and days to provide an “unpredictable response”.
Sergeant Stuhldreier said rural roads continued to be overrepresented in crash statistics, especially in Melton.
“People tend to get easily distracted on rural roads, they run off the roads … there are animals, the weather and that combined with speed, the results aren’t good.”
TAC road safety director Samantha Cockfield said although those roads had been identified as high risk, they’re not the only roads police are targeting.
“No one deserves to die or be seriously hurt on the roads, so we’re urging everyone to think about the choices they make every time they get behind the wheel,” Ms Cockfield said.
In the five years to April 5, 2017, 27 people have been killed on Melton roads.
Operation Cast started last month and will continue until November.
