A whopping one in five trucks pulled over and checked as part of Operator Vector on Thursday was issued with a defect notice.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ballarat and Moorabool police joined forces to check heavy vehicles along the Sunraysia Highway at Waubra and Gisborne Road in Darley - both popular routes to grain growing areas in the state's north and close to quarries. Highway Patrol officers said a total of 51 trucks were pulled over.
Of those, 10 were issued with defect notices.
"There was one truck we grounded straight away," Sergeant Craig Kelso from Moorabool Highway Patrol said.
"It was a dirt tipper and the frame was twisted on the trailer.
"There were also bolts missing on the truck.
"It was definitely not safe."
He said other vehicles were given defect notices for smashed windscreens and mirrors as well as faulty suspension.
Sergeant Kelso said Thursday's blitz also saw two truck drivers test positive to drugs - ice and cannabis - in initial tests.
Police also detected one logbook offence related to driving while fatigued.
Senior Sergeant Liam Gardner from Ballarat Highway Patrol said the team was seeing few grain trucks during March - and more carrying cattle and sheep.
"There was all sorts of freight (on the Sunraysia Highway). That included a lot of trucks with quarry materials going from Avoca to the old Ballarat tip site in Mount Clear which is being capped," he said.
"On a positive note some of the vehicles we saw at Waubra in February we saw again - and they had complied with the things we had educated them about."
Operation Vector is also focusing on buses - and is running across western Victoria until mid-2023.
It comes after 27 Loreto Ballarat students were injured in a truck collision and bus rollover on the Western Freeway on September 22. A 60-year-old Croydon truck driver will face court in July.