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Two out of the five deaths on the region's roads this year could have been prevented by seatbelt use according to Bendigo police.
Senior Sergeant Ian Brooks said the number of people not wearing seatbelts in the region had risen inexplicably.
It comes as police target seat-belt wearing, among other dangerous driver behaviors, during the Labour Day long weekend.
Senior Sergeant Brooks said drivers on the region's roads seemed to be reluctant to wear seatbelts.
He said two of the deaths in Division Five this year were linked to a failure to wear seatbelts.
Those people would most likely have survived if they had been properly restrained, he said.
Senior Sergeant Brooks said it was something police really struggled to understand.
"I can't explain it. It's an attitudinal thing," he said.
"It's not any particular age group, it's right across all age groups, all different types of people, at all levels. For some level people have stopped wearing their seatbelts."
Senior Sergeant Brooks said slipping seatbelt standards appeared to be specific to the region, rather than a statewide issue.
"Seatbelts save lives, we know that. We can look at multiple collisions where people have died and know full well that if they had been wearing their seatbelt they most likely would have survived," he said.
Senior Sergeant Brooks said all police units would be working this weekend, to try and arrest the climbing road toll.
Police will be testing drivers for drugs and alcohol, and focusing on distraction offences.
Senior Sergeant Brooks said he wanted a long weekend without road trauma, for police and their colleagues in the State Emergency Service and Ambulance Victoria.
He advised people to put their seatbelts on, slow down, drive to conditions, take breaks and lock their phones in the boot.
"Don't just think it's the other bloke who needs to do it, or it's the other woman who needs to do it, you do it," he said.
"You slow down, you put your seatbelt on, put your mobile phone away."
Earlier
POLICE will crack down on dangerous driving this long weekend to keep road users safe.
Forty-five people have been killed on Victoria's road this year.
Drink and drug driving is a suspected factor in ten of those incidents.
Eight people have died on the roads because they were not wearing seatbelts.
Victoria Police's Labour Day operation will target the key causes of death and serious injury on the roads.
These include speed, fatigue, driver distraction and seatbelt offences.
A particular focus will be on impaired driving.
Officers will be highly visible across metropolitan and rural locations during the operation.
Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner Libby Murphy said it was baffling that people still got behind the wheel after drinking or taking drugs.
Knowingly getting into the driver's seat while drunk or drug-affected is entirely selfish and there's no place for it on our roads.
- Libby Murphy
Assistant Commissioner Murphy said the dangers of drink and drug were nothing new.
"Drink driving shortens your concentration span, significantly affects reaction times and alters your ability to judge distances," she said.
"Knowingly getting into the driver's seat while drunk or drug-affected is entirely selfish and there's no place for it on our roads."
Two people died on Victorian roads during the Labour Day weekend in 2019.
Forty-four people have died on Victorian roads to date in 2020, a drop of 22.8 per cent from the same time in 2019.
Twenty-seven of these people died on rural roads.
Operation Arid will run from 12.01am Friday March 6, to 11.59pm Monday March 9.
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