By Sumeyya Ilanbey
Police detected 120 offences on Melton and Moorabool roads during the AFL grand final long weekend.
Speeding offences made up the bulk of the offences, with 32 detected in Melton and 47 in Moorabool.
Two drink-drivers and four drug-affected drivers were nabbed in Melton during Operation Scoreboard, while three drink-drivers and one drug-affected driver were caught in Moorabool.
Senior Sergeant Deon Townsend-Booth, from the Highway Patrol, said the operation’s bottom line was safety.
“We were able to intercept quite a few speeding drivers and distraction offences,” he said.
“The operation was about us saturating the area to adjust driver behaviour, and the knock-on effect of that is less road trauma – at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.”
Senior Sergeant Townsend-Booth said it was “frustrating” people were slow to understand the seriousness of using mobile phones while driving.
“There’s still a lot of tragic accidents that happen as a result of distraction,” he said.
“It only takes a split second.”
Across the state, police detected 7565 traffic offences, including 2500 speeding and 500 mobile phone offences. There were three fatal accidents.
