Bendigo police out in high numbers as part of Queen's Birthday Weekend operation

Senior Sergeant Ian Brooks said extra resources would come into central Victoria as police focus on the large volume of traffic come to and driving through regional areas.

"Every policeman available this weekend will be engaged in road policing at some point," he said.

"Our colleagues from the state highway patrol and the drug and alcohol testing unit will bring extra police vehicles, both marked and unmarked, and extra bikes into the region.

"We will also have booze buses and drug buses in the area as well."

Operation Regal will commence across Victoria on Friday, June 7, and continue until midday on Monday, June 10.

Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said police question whether there is a sense of complacency on Victorian roads as the number of lives lost continues to soar.

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"Every day police continue to attend crash scenes where people have consciously chosen to speed, not wear their seatbelt or drive under the influence of drugs and alcohol," AC Leane said.

"If you choose to drive this way and something tragic happens, you are ultimately choosing to put your family and friends through an unimaginable amount of pain.

"Police are doing everything we can to curve bad driver behaviour. But without the support and a change in the way people choose to drive we will continue to see carnage on our roads."

So far this year 141 lives have been lost on Victoria's roads compared 88 in the same time last year.

Senior Sergeant Ian Brooks said police will be targeting all aspects of driver behaviour but that fatigue and distraction were the biggest driver issues on long weekends.

"We will be getting a large volume of traffic into the area, travelling and taking advantage of holiday weekend," he said.

"The biggest issue across this weekend, according to our intelligence analysis, is fatigue or distraction.

"People are driving long distances on roads they are not used to or are not driving to the road conditions. Their eyes come off the road to their mobile phone, an electronic device or something that distracts from what doing.

"Some units are purely on drug and alcohol (duties), others are for speed and other road laws, and other units are being visible and letting people know to watch out for police while picking up (any offences) they see."

Senior Sergeant Brooks said penalties can range from $400 upwards for careless driving or using phones while driving.

But he said the ultimate penalty was one no one wanted to pay.

"The ultimate penalty is someone is going to die," he said. "People are driving distracted and running into each other.

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"Nobody wants ticket but I'm sure nobody wants to die. People need to start thinking about accidents and what they are doing. Accidents are the causes of serious and fatal injuries in the area.

"Ultimate penalty for two seconds on the phone (while driving) is you die or you kill someone."

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