POLICE focused on educating the community about the role a safe vehicle can play in reducing road trauma during a road policing operation on Wednesday.
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The Hepburn region has been significantly impacted by both serious injury and fatal collisions this year.
There have been four deaths on roads across the area - at Hepburn, Coomoora, Mt Cameron and Korweinguboora - and police do not want to see that number increase further.
With the Midland Highway running through much of Hepburn Shire and many high speed sealed and unsealed country roads, in addition to the number of animals crossing major thoroughfares due to surrounding forests, it can be dangerous to drive in on a normal day.
In winter, drivers can be faced with further dangers, with wet weather conditions reducing visibility on the roads and black ice an invisible danger that is frequently encountered.
This week, Daylesford Police, with assistance from Ballarat and Moorabool Highway Patrol units and uniformed officers from Trentham, ran 'Operation Worthy' across the Hepburn Shire.
It was a highly visible police operation, with a focus on educating drivers whose vehicles were not in the safest condition to drive on the roads this winter, as well as to detect speeding offences.
Related coverage: Safer vehicles a key factor in reducing road trauma
Related coverage: Slow down and take care in wet weather
The operation began at 1pm and ran until 9pm, with police travelling from Daylesford to Drummond and over to Creswick and all the smaller towns in between.
While the focus of the operation was to educate the community, it also involved some enforcement.
The primary focus of the operation was vehicle safety and driver education with enforcement coming into the winter period.
- Acting Sergeant Ryan Newman
"The primary focus of the operation was vehicle safety and driver education with enforcement coming into the winter period," Acting Sergeant Ryan Newman said.
"It was to get the point across to members of the public to check their vehicles and make sure that they are in good working order."
Acting Sergeant Newman said 52 vehicles were intercepted in the eight hour period.
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A number of people received warnings for issues with their vehicles, while nine penalty notices were issued for defects including bald tyres and ineffective brake lights.
In addition, nine speeding offences and four unregistered vehicles were detected.
Acting Sergeant Newman said police involved were happy that none of the breath tests conducted returned a positive result.
Every person who was intercepted was given a pamphlet promoting the 'Road to Zero' while drivers were also informed about how to drive in winter conditions, including on black ice.
When driving in icy conditions it is important to slow down. In conjunction with having tyres with suitable tread depth, the risk of a crash is significantly reduced.
Police will continue to run further road policing operations targeting the major contributors to road trauma - distraction, speed and impairment - in coming months.
