Police have nabbed a number of motorists breaking road rules across the region throughout the long weekend.
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Four-day Operation Regal involved personnel from the highway patrol, general duties and other operational policing units targeting high-risk driving behaviour such as speeding, alcohol and drug impaired driving, fatigue, driver distraction and failure to wear a seatbelt.
Highway patrol Acting Senior Sergeant David Whitwell said it was comforting for police to not have responded to any fatalities over the weekend, even though there was a serious collision.
He said traffic across the division - encompassing Ballarat, Moorabool, Hepburn, Golden Plains and Pyrenees - was relatively light across the weekend.
During the operation police conducted more than 1000 alcohol and drug tests.
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From these, nine drug-impaired drivers were detected.
"It is disappointing that we are still detecting people who are driving while impaired," Acting Senior Sergeant Whitwell said.
There were also 140 other offences detected.
These included unauthorised drivers - eight disqualified drivers were detected, four unlicensed drivers as well as 15 unregistered vehicles.
Three vehicles were impounded.
There were also 74 speeding offences detected across the weekend.
One of these drivers was a 36-year-old woman who was caught travelling at 50km/h over the speed limit on the Western Freeway near Gordon.
State Highway Patrol officers detected the women travelling at 152km/h in a 100km/h zone.
The woman had her two young children in the car and also tested positive to a roadside drug test.
Additionally, five drivers were detected disobeying signs and signals on the roads.
"Whether speed, distraction, disobeying road rules, not wearing a seatbelt, fatigue or impairment from alcohol or drugs is at play, road trauma can be avoided," Assistant Commissioner Road Policing Libby Murphy said.
"We cannot be complacent when driving. Everyone must take responsibility for their actions on our roads.
"As restrictions continue to ease across Victoria, we will see more motorists returning to our roads. We are urging you to please slow down, consider other road users and don't take unnecessary and irresponsible risks. We want everyone to return home safely.
"Police will continue to be highly visible and enforcing on Victorian roads over the coming weeks as restrictions ease and the July Victorian school holiday period commences."
Operation Regal ran from Friday 11 June to Monday 8 June 2021.
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