Operation Regal will run from Friday, June 6 to Monday, June 9, with police ramping up enforcement during what has been identified as a high-risk period on Victorian roads.
Speeding and distraction will be focus areas, and with winter getting under way police are also urging drivers to take extra care and pay attention behind the wheel as reduced daylight hours and wet weather impact visibility and conditions.
Major arterials and highways leading to holiday spots, including alpine areas where the snow season kicks off, will be targeted.
With events and festivals across the weekend, police are also reminding motorists to avoid driving while impaired, with widespread drug and alcohol testing being conducted anywhere, any time.
Police issued more than 7000 infringements during Operation Regal in 2024.
The 2025 operation follows the worst May for road fatalities since 2004, with 37 lives lost during the month.
There have been 136 lives lost on Victorian roads so far in 2025 — a 14 per cent increase compared to the same time in 2024.
The last time fatalities were this high at this point of the year was in 2008, with 137.
Police have been concerned by the increase in fatalities involving vulnerable road users, with eight motorcycle and six pedestrian fatalities during May.
Road Policing Command Acting Assistant Commissioner David Byrt urged drivers to take extra care on the roads, and drive to conditions this weekend.
“Driving during winter presents additional challenges, such as navigating slippery roads and poor visibility, and there is less room for error,” he said.
He said the amount of road trauma police had seen so far this year was “extremely concerning”.
“These road trauma numbers, of course, represent actual people. People who have been killed, or whose lives are changed for ever, simply from travelling on our roads,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Byrt said.
“We’re appealing to everyone to make road safety their number one priority, every time they get behind the wheel or are out using our roads, to eliminate this unnecessary and avoidable trauma.
“We’ll be highly visible and enforcing across the state’s roads this long weekend, cracking down on any dangerous driving behaviour that puts other road users at risk.”
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