IN 10 years of Melbourne’s gangland war, 23 men lost their lives.
All notorious crime figures, some were gunned down, others burned to death.
Many of the dead were killers.
The crimes shocked the nation and in 2008 – 13 years after the first shot was fired – 1.9 million people tuned in to watch the violence unfold on the Channel Nine series Underbelly.
What viewers did not see, however, was as Melbourne’s gangland war was raging, police were fighting another battle – road safety.
In the same 10-year period 3900 people were killed on Victorian roads. Unlike those killed in Melbourne’s underbelly, they were “every- day’’ people, victims of one of the state’s biggest killers.
Motor vehicle crashes are the biggest single cause of accidental death in Australia. In Bendigo, the local highway patrol has been trying to change this, upping its patrols and special operations in a bid to remove dangerous drivers from the roads and drive down the road toll.
Although the annual road toll has almost halved in the past 10 years, too many lives are still being claimed, with 270 already lost this year. Now, in the lead-up to the busy Christmas period, police are again pushing the road safety message. Over the next two-and-a-half weeks 300,000 preliminary breath tests will be conducted and drug-testing sites will be set up across the state.
The testing is part of Operation RAID – Remove All Impaired Drivers.
Bendigo police will also be conducting their own operations in conjunction with the Transport Accident Commission, targeting speed, mobile phone use and seatbelt offences.
Statistics show that during the past four festive seasons (November 25 to December 31) 11 people have been killed on Greater Bendigo and outer area roads, including Campaspe, Loddon, Central Goldfields and Macedon Ranges shires.
Sergeant Geoff Annand of the Bendigo highway patrol said police had attended more than 550 accidents during that time. Of those accidents, more than 100 resulted in serious injuries while eight were fatalities, including one quadruple fatality.
During his 10 years in the Victoria Police force – four with the Bendigo highway patrol – Senior Constable Slimmon has attended his fair share of road accidents.
He says it is the reason why Bendigo police have zero tolerance towards motorists caught flouting the law.
“I had a lot of friends who when young were killed in car accidents.
“I thought if I can take just one unsafe car off the road I could possibly make a difference; one less person could die because that car is off the road.’’
With just four weeks until the new year, Bendigo police are hoping motorists heed the road safety message and slow down, turn off the mobile phone and buckle up this holiday season.
“It’s the easiest way to ensure you will arrive home safe,’’ Sergeant Annand said. “Christmas is always the busiest time of the year, families head away for the holidays and as people unwind they often like to have a few drinks.
“We don’t want to stop people from having fun, we want them to call a taxi or organise a designated driver.’’
As RAID kicked off last Friday, the Bendigo Advertiser joined Senior Constable Bruce Slimmon on the road. During our seven-and-a-half hours on the beat:
- Two motorists were caught talking on their mobile phone in the Bendigo CBD.
- Three drivers’ vehicles were given unroadworthy notices; two had been “hotted up’’ and the other had a taped-up ignition and no rear window.
- A learner driver was booked for running a red light.
- A White Hills woman was caught not wearing a seatbelt. She was pulled over just metres from her home in Napier Street.
- A Bendigo man walked away from a vehicle roll-over uninjured, but will have to face court for careless driving.
- An 18-year-old received almost $700 in fines and will lose his licence for at least one month after he was caught doing 90kmh along Napier Street – a 60kmh zone. The teen, who had held a licence for just two months, also incurred seven demerit points.
“It’s offences like this – speeding around town, talking on a mobile phone – that cause accidents and even a minor speed can cause a fatality,’’ Senior Constable Slimmon said.
“We’ve seen too many fatalities. We’ve seen low- speed accidents where people have died and we’ve seen high speed accidents where people have died.
“If we take an unroadworthy car off the road the driver won’t know if we’ve saved a life, but he won’t know that we haven’t saved a life either.’’
Since January 1 last year 15 people have been killed on Greater Bendigo roads. According to local police statistics:
- Four of the fatalities are believed to have involved alcohol.
- Three are believed to have involved speed.
- Three are believed to have involved fatigue.
- One motorist is believed to have been using a mobile phone in the moments before he veered off the road and into a tree.
- One woman was drug affected.
- One was not wearing a seatbelt.
- One vehicle was unroadworthy.
(Some of the accidents involved two or more of the above factors).
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