POLICE say they continue to be shocked by the amount of drivers caught driving under the impairment of drugs or alcohol, with a number caught in blitzes so far this week.
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Highway Patrol officers have been targeting roads with random breath and drug tests throughout the region and are concerned by the amount of drug drivers being found on the roads. Acting Superintendent Trevor Cornwill said police the amount of drivers caught with drugs was disappointing.
“What we are noticing in Ballarat is the amount of impaired drivers is disproportionate than what we thought would be the case,” he said.
“We’ve had a number of positive drug tests in recent days which is disappointing to see.
“It’s certainly something we are aware of and we’ll run more operations to try and detect people who are driving with illicit substances in their system.”
Acting Superintendent Cornwill said people often didn’t realise how long drugs remained in the system.
“We’re talking illegal drugs and narcotics,” he said.
“One of the things that people don’t seem to realise is that drugs will stay in your system for a number of days.
“What we hear from people is that, `yes, we did take illicit drugs, but that was yesterday’.
“Those drugs stay in the system and affect and impair your ability to drive.
“The more tests we conduct, the more people we detect, so our major concern is the amount of drivers in the community. We will continue to conduct regular operations to detect these drivers.”
Meanwhile police have praised driver behaviour of those who attended last weekend’s AFL game at Mars Stadium.
Despite more than 6000 people in the area, police said they had no concerns with the way drivers handled the difficult road conditions.
“The AFL has been very supportive of our efforts to help out. I think the biggest line up for the day was at the coffee van,” Superintendent Cornwill said.