6 April 2021

Speed still an issue but police mostly happy with long weekend behaviour

| Michael Weaver
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Police speed check

An Australian Federal Police officer checks the speed of motorists. Photo: Supplied.

A Canberra driver has been detected doing almost 200 km/h in an 80 km/h zone at Yarra Glen during an Easter long weekend blitz by police to reduce the number of fatal motor vehicle accidents.

Another driver was caught travelling at 172 km/h in an 80 zone on the Monaro Highway, while a third driver was detected at 107 km/h in a 60 zone on Caswell Drive.

ACT Road Policing Detective Sergeant Bill Evans said the good news was that there were no fatal collisions over the Easter weekend.

However, three people, including a young child, were killed in a single-vehicle car accident on the Princes Highway at Lake Tabourie at about 4:30 am on Saturday (3 April).

The three died after their car left the road and hit a tree. A fourth passenger was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition.

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During the five-day double demerit point period, 167 motorists were caught speeding. Fourteen drivers were detected doing more than 30 km/h over the speed limit.

Det Sgt Evans said too many drivers were still taking unnecessary risks, with eight drivers returning positive results to roadside drug tests. Four people were caught drink-driving from more than 1800 tests.

One of the drink drivers recorded a blood-alcohol reading of 0.159, which is more than three times the legal limit.

“We also detected 41 unregistered vehicles, of which 29 had no compulsory third party insurance,” Det Sgt Evans said.

He said police were mostly pleased with the behaviour of drivers during the long weekend.

“The number of people choosing to drink and drive was lower. That’s a good result given the number of tests conducted, but it’s still four too many,” Det Sgt Evans said.

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How many got done running red lights over the weekend?

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