The deaths of three people on Victorian roads over the Easter long weekend period have police again pleading with drivers to change their behaviour.
Three people were killed in collisions during the five-day Operation Nexus which ended yesterday, leaving police and families devastated.
All of the fatalities occurred on Good Friday and include;
• A 19-year-old man died in the early hours of Friday morning after he fell from the rear of a utility in Frankston shortly after 2.30 am.
• A 55-year-old man from Crafers West in South Australia who died on Friday morning when the vehicle he was travelling in left the road and struck a tree at Armstrong. A passer-by reported the incident to police at around 6.30 am.
• A 29-year-old man died in hospital on Saturday after police officers stopped the man's vehicle in Deer Park as part of a routine intercept on Friday evening. While police were conducting a licence check, the man fled his vehicle on foot and ran across Ballarat Road where he was struck by a car.
The incidents have taken the state's lives lost total to 101, a devastating 40 above the tally at the same time last year.
Road Police Command Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said all of the weekend's fatalities should not have happened.
"These collisions are still subject to complex investigations, however we are of the opinion that every death that occurs on our roads is avoidable," AC Leane said.
"Three people's families have had their lives irreversibly damaged this weekend.
"These deaths will not only forever mar Easter for the affected loved ones, they will impact other occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries and Christmases, along with normal day-to-day life, for the foreseeable future.
"This is the devastating reality that eventuates when people lose their lives on Victorian roads and right now three families are living this reality following this weekend, along with the loved ones of the other 98 people who haven't made it home in 2019."
Police were kept busy over Operation Nexus with 11,674 offences detected across the state.
Speeding topped the list of detected offences with 4221 drivers caught over the limit. Alarmingly, 3130 drivers were found to be exceeding the speed limit by 10-25kph.
Police conducted 152,375 preliminary breath tests and 5234 drug tests during the operation and detected 619 affected drivers.
On average one in every 16 drivers that were drug tested were found to be under the influence of illicit substances with 310 returning positive results, while 309 motorists were caught drink driving.
Other offences detected over the long weekend include:
• 471 mobile phone offences
• 386 unlicensed drivers
• 219 disqualified drivers
• 344 seat belt offences
• 1150 unregistered vehicles
AC Leane reminded drivers that anyone who breaks the law on Victorian roads has the potential to cause devastation.
"Every driving offence, be it speeding, drink or drug driving, or failure to wear seatbelts, can take a life in a split second," he said.
"Every person that gets behind the wheel of a car needs to realise this and accept the responsibility they have to ensure that they themselves and the motorists they share the road with get home safely.
"With Operation Kinetic still ongoing, police will continue to have a strong presence on the roads through the Anzac Day public holiday period and we will be working hard to ensure the tragedies we have seen during Easter are not repeated."
Operation Nexus ran from 12.01am on Thursday 18 April until 11.59pm Monday 22 April, 2019
