UNAUTHORISED DRIVERS UNCOVERED

Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology has helped police detect 424 unauthorised drivers during a two-day road safety blitz.
Operation Amity saw police enforcing on Victorian roads during the high-risk Australia Day period, with ANPR technology fitted to highway patrol vehicles used to detect disqualified, suspended and unlicensed drivers as well as those driving unregistered vehicles.
Police also targeted impaired drivers during the two-day operation, with more than 160 motorists detected for alcohol or drugs offences from 28,950 tests across the state.
Illegal mobile phone use saw 144 motorists issued with infringements and a further 68 offences were issued to motorists caught not wearing a seatbelt.
Assistant Commissioner Road Policing, Glenn Weir said it’s been a busy end to the peak holiday season with Victorians embracing the warm weather this week and heading to coastal locations, lakes, rivers and visiting regional areas.
“Disappointingly, we continue to detect a significant number of motorists flouting the road rules and putting other’s lives at risk – with almost 3000 offences detected in just two days,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner Weir said police patrols have increased on Victorian roads since the end of lockdowns.
“So, motorists should expect to see more police, more often this year. With school resuming next week and more people returning to work now is not the time to be complacent behind the wheel.”

A total of 2838 offences were detected during Operation Amity, including:

• 92 drink driving offences from 27,775 preliminary breath tests
• 70 drug driving offences from 1175 roadside drug tests
• 67 disqualified/suspended drivers
• 94 unlicensed drivers
• 263 unregistered vehicles
• 1117 speeding offences
• 144 mobile phone offences
• 179 disobey signs/signals
• 68 seatbelt offences
• 42 vehicle impoundments

There was a fatal collision in Torrumbarry on Tuesday, 25 January, bringing the total lives lost to 21 this year, more than 10 at the same time last year (11).
Operation Amity ran from 12:01am on Tuesday 25 January to 23:59pm on Wednesday 26 January.