“The same old idiots, doing the same old stupid things”: That’s what the State’s Police Minister has to say about driver behaviour during the first month of Queensland’s road safety operation.
In just the first eight days of the year, over 350 people have been busted drink driving during the dedicated operation, while almost 250 have been caught drug-driving.
Tragically, there have been five fatal crashes across the state, including one on the Gold Coast which claimed the lives of three family members.
Police Minister Mark Ryan says there’s also been more than 500 speeding offences detected, and that’s just during the specific road safety initiative, ‘Operation Charger’.
“Too many people being detected already in the first week of this year breaking our road rules, driving irresponsibly and doing stupid things on our roads,” Minister Ryan says.
“It’s contributing to not only risky roads, but potential loss of life,”
“Everyone has a responsibility when they get on our roads to do the right thing, when you don’t do those right things you can have catastrophic impacts not only on your own life but on the lives of others and those people who love them.”
Queensland Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Chris Stream says motorists are continuing to flout road rules.
“Let me be blunt to the Queensland driving community: If we continue along the lines, committing offences like we’re seeing currently, we will see more fatalities, we will see more serious traffic accidents… and that could be yourself,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Stream says.
“What we’re seeing is concerning figures in those random breath tests, as well as the drug testing,”
“Again, it’s the fatal five. We see that speeding, not wearing your seatbelt, drug and drink driving, fatigue and distraction contributing to traffic crashes.
Through this holiday period, there was one incident in particular in Western Queensland left officers dumfounded.
“We’ve also seen unbelievable circumstance where police intercepted a driver for speeding, and then when police approached the vehicle, they then observed a baby unrestrained in the passenger seat,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Stream says.
“So not only are we seeing the driver disregarding speed laws, which is a risky behaviour in itself, but an unrestrained baby is an absolute recipe for disaster,
“If that vehicle were even to be involved in even a low speed collision, almost certainly we would see a fatality involving that child there in an unrestrained situation.”
