DOZENS of central Victorians were nabbed drink and drug driving at the long weekend as part of a statewide police operation.
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Police from the western region division - which covers Bendigo, Campaspe, Loddon, Central Goldfields, Mount Alexander, and the Macedon Ranges - recorded 407 offences as part of Operation Arid.
"Overall, the pleasing part was that no one was killed this weekend," Bendigo Highway Patrol Senior Sergeant Ian Brooks said.
"While we did have to attend to and investigate four serious injury collisions, nobody is suffering from life-threatening injuries and we hope they make a speedy recovery.
"But what was of particular concern was that two of the collisions were on rural roads where minor roads cross over major roads. So we're investigating people failing to give way at stop signs.
"It's becoming more of a concern to us on more isolated roads where people are paying less attention."
Senior Sergeant Brooks said while the majority of motorists were booked for speeding, 10 people were nabbed drink driving at the weekend.
Eighteen people were also prosecuted for drug-impaired driving.
"That drug driving statistic is slowly rising to a point where it's becoming a bigger issue now than it has been," Senior Sergeant Brooks said.
"It will also be brought about by increased capacity to have more officers doing the drug testing.
"We saw a similar pattern when they first introduced drink driving legislation but it did go down slowly over time.
"We would like it to go down faster rather than slower. We're not tolerating people who use drugs and drive. We're not interested in people's excuses. We would just prefer they didn't do it."
Senior Sergeant Brooks also urged motorists to slow down to 40km/h when passing stationary emergency vehicles that have lights flashing.
"I don't think the message has been received at all," he said. "We understand if they're on a freeway they may not slow down to exactly 40km/h.
"Some people stick to it like glue and others don't care, but it's about the safety of our emergency workers.
"Slowing down is about looking after our people so we get our job done and get out of the way quicker so the road can be cleared."
More than 8060 traffic offences were detected across the state during Operation Arid, including 209 drug driving offences and 257 offences recorded for drink driving.