Police from the State Highway Patrol detected almost 500 offences and impounded 20 vehicles as part of Operation Amadeus.
The operation was aimed at addressing the contributing factors of fatal and serious injury collisions within rural Victoria, with a primary focus on speed enforcement and drug and alcohol impaired drivers.
State Highway Patrol deployed a number of highway patrol cars across Ballarat and Moorabool areas for the four-day operation which ran from Friday 11 to Monday 14 October.
Police detected 481 offences during the operation including:
• 3 drink driving;
• 18 drug drivers;
• 11 disqualified drivers;
• 15 unlicensed drivers;
• 45 unregistered vehicles;
• 272 speeding offences;
• 5 disobey traffic signs/signals;
• 20 vehicle impounds.
Highway patrol officers conducted 1333 breath test and 190 drug tests over the four days.
State Highway Patrol Inspector John Cormack expressed concern at the amount of unauthorised drivers who continued to get behind the wheel.
"Unauthorised drivers are overrepresented in crashes which is a trend in some rural locations" he said.
"They get detected using alcohol or drugs, lose their licence and continue to drive."
"As many of our vehicles are now fitted with mobile automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology it is easier for us to identify those people who should be off the road and pose a greater risk to the community."
Operation Amadeus is an ongoing state-wide initiative that will continue to target road users in rural areas.
