Police will target unsafe driver behaviour during a four-month traffic blitz on the Hume Highway
July 6, 2012
New South Wales Police plans to target unsafe driver behaviour, including fatigue management breaches, during a four-month blitz on the Hume Highway.
Dubbed Operation Highway 31, the police action runs from July to October focusing on reducing road trauma.
Officers will be conducting patrols of the highway from Pheasants Nest through to Albury, with a focus on speeding, drink-driving and fatigue.
“Over the last three years, there have been more than 1,200 major traffic crashes on the Hume Highway. Almost 400 of those crashes resulted in serious injuries and 23 were fatal crashes,” Acting Superintendent Gregory Lynch says.
“Speeding, drink-and-drug-driving and fatigue are known killers on the road. Operation Highway 31 is in place to combat these and other unsafe driver behaviours.”
Police also intend to promote the free flow of traffic by monitoring conditions and reporting real-time information to the Traffic Management Centre.
“The Hume Highway is a major inter-city highway and a vital link for road freight to transport goods between Sydney and Melbourne, as well as serving Albury-Wodonga and Canberra,” Lynch says.
“This operation provides a highly-visible policing response to incidents along the highway and aims to keep traffic disruptions to a minimum.”
Operation Highway 31 coincides with the SnowSafe campaign, which encourages motorists to take extra care when driving to the snowfields, particularly focusing on driving to road and weather conditions.
“All motorists have a responsibility to themselves – and to all other road users – to obey the speed limit and drive responsibly,” Lynch says.
