Shepparton police disappointed with speeding motorists

The operation, which kicked off on Friday morning and ran until Monday night, saw local police focusing their efforts to patrol roads around Greater Shepparton.

“Over the course of the weekend we detected 30 speeding offences and the concern about that is all of those offences were more than 10 km/h over the speed limit,” Shepparton Highway Patrol Acting Sergeant Michael Jarrett said.

“Of those 30, four of them incurred a loss of licence — this is not a good result, we are a bit concerned about that.”

Acting Sgt Jarrett said police were disappointed motorists were prepared to travel at such high speeds, which could result in an immediate loss of licence.

Despite speeding being high on the police radar on the weekend, Acting Sgt Jarrett said the statistics for other offences were relatively good.

“Over the course of the weekend we performed nearly 380 preliminary breath tests and we have processed no drink drivers — we were pretty happy about that,” he said.

“However we did have four detections of drug driving, which was a little disappointing.”

Shepparton Highway Patrol officers also detected a couple of phone usage and seatbelt offences, however Acting Sgt Jarrett said the numbers for these were not as high as previous long weekends.

Police also confirmed there were no serious collisions in Greater Shepparton during the operation.

“There were no drink drivers —we were really impressed by that; drug driving was disappointing and speeding was a real standout ... however overall I think we probably haven’t done too badly for our area,” Acting Sgt Jarrett said.

State Highway Patrol members were also patrolling roads in Greater Shepparton over the long weekend.

During the operation, State Highway Patrol units issued a number of infringements including one drink driver, four unlicensed drivers, 23 speeding offences, one disobey signs/signals, one seatbelt offence, one mobile phone offence, six unregistered vehicles and one impoundment.