FOR three months of the year, not a soul was lost on the roads in our policing division.
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“If we can do it for three, why don’t we aim for six months next year?” Senior Sergeant Ian Brooks said.
March, June and October were fatality-free in Victoria Police western region division five – an area spanning six municipalities, including Bendigo.
Tragedy has marred the other nine months of the year, most recently with the death of 23-year-old cyclist Jason Lowndes in a collision at Mandurang.
The Victoria Police western region division 5 road policing advisor said police were investigating a number of recent crashes, including last Friday’s fatality.
Emergency services were called to two single-car crashes on Wednesday morning.
The driver of a white ute towing a tandem trailer carrying another vehicle was taken to hospital after a crash at Lockwood Road, Lockwood, about 10.30am.
Police believed the load on the trailer shifted, leading the driver to lose control of the vehicle on the 100km/h road.
Another man was taken to hospital that morning after an unrelated crash at Patons Road in Kimbolton.
Emergency services were called to scene about 10.15am.
Senior Sergeant Brooks said the driver of the vehicle was believed to have lost control at a corner.
Neither the driver, nor a passenger, were initially thought to be injured.
Paramedics were later called to attend to a man with suspected neck and shoulder injuries.
An Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said the man was transported to Bendigo hospital in a stable condition.
Emergency services were called to Kangaroo Flat about 7.15pm on Christmas Eve in relation to a single-vehicle crash at Kangaroo Gully Road.
Senior Sergeant Brooks said the driver was taken to hospital after losing control of the vehicle, in which they were the sole occupant.
The vehicle left the road on a right-hand bend.
Investigations into an unrelated crash on Christmas night, at Maiden Gully, are ongoing.
As is the work of the Major Collision Investigation Unit in relation to the collision that killed Jason Lowndes.
Senior Sergeant Brooks urged people not to jump to conclusions about the cause of the crash.
“I am very confident our Major Collision Investigation Unit will be able to establish what happened,” he said.
“Those answers are not available at the moment.
“The investigation is still ongoing. We should leave it to the experts.”
He urged people to make safety a priority on the roads.
“The road to zero is not an impossible target,” he said.
‘Everyone needs to aim at that target.”
Police throughout the division have recorded more than 600 offences since Operation Roadwise started.
Of those, 29 involved allegations of drug or alcohol impaired driving.
The district encompasses the Campaspe, Loddon, Central Goldfields, Bendigo, Mount Alexander and Macedon Ranges shires.
A third of the traffic offences were detected in the City of Greater Bendigo.
Thirteen of the more than 200 offences were in relation to drug or alcohol impaired driving.
“I will continue to say it until the message gets through – law enforcement is one part of road safety,” Senior Sergeant Brooks said.
He pleaded people to pay attention to what they were doing behind the wheel and to the actions of others sharing the road.
With New Year’s Eve days away, the senior sergeant implored people to plan to get everyone home safely, or to accommodate guests until they were fit to drive.
“If everybody in the community did that, our road trauma would drop tomorrow,” he said.
Emma D'Agostino
Covering general news and Bendigo council.
Covering general news and Bendigo council.
