BENDIGO police are praying for a fatality-free Christmas and New Year on our roads.
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Senior Sergeant Paul Gardiner from the Bendigo highway patrol said there had been 27 fatal collisions on central Victorian roads in the year to date, killing 28 people.
“That compares to 11 fatals last year,” he said.
“The vast majority of these people were local people, central Victorian people.
“That means there will be families, friends and relatives that will be missing loved ones during the Christmas/New Year period.
“In addition to that there has been 550 people injured or seriously injured during the same period on central victorian roads.
“A number of those injuries are life-changing injuries – people who will no longer walk again, people who will have acquired brain injuries for the rest of their life, all that sort of thing.
“So the strongest message is we want people to get through this period safely – for their families, for their friends, for their loved ones.”
Senior Sergeant Gardiner is calling for people to slow down and drive with extra caution during this busy time of year.
“From a policing perspective we’ll have as many cars on the roads as we can,” he said. “We’ll be targeting what we know the high-risk offences are – speeding, people talking on their mobile phones and people not wearing their seatbelts, and drug- and drink-driving.
“And to assist us with all of that we have the use of a police motorbike. They’re not as visible to people but they’re a very, very strong tool for us in detecting people doing the wrong thing.
“We’ll have the police motorbike here in Bendigo for about three weeks.”