ROAD crashes in Cardinia have decreased since new Pakenham police officers have boosted the number of visible police patrols on the roads.
Sergeant Peter Garton, officer in charge of Cardinia Traffic Management Unit (TMU), said in a recent traffic target around four major roads in the area, crashes and traffic offences had been much lower compared with the same time last year.
Operation Loop, which ran from 15 December to 28 January, saw TMU members and uniform officers patrolling the Princes Highway, Pakenham Road, BelgraveGembrook Road and EmeraldBeaconsfield Road.
Sgt Garton said there were only nine crashes during the sevenweek period compared with 18 in the same period last year.
Over the period police detected 62 traffic offences from 59 offenders.
Thirty of those involved speeding.
The operation saw police out on the four high crash roads on Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons between 3pm and 6pm.
“It was gratifying to see the reduction,” Sgt Garton said.
“That was the idea of the operation.”
In an operation targeting the Hills area on Saturday night, Operation Holly, police targetted patrons leaving licensed premises around the area.
Sgt Garton said the wet weather reduced the number of people who were out for the evening.
He said there were 21 offences from 18 offenders detected.
These included six speeding, eight failing to wear seatbelts, one unregistered vehicle and two drivers using mobile phones.
Out of 78 breath tests conducted during the night, there were no drink driving offences.
Sgt Garton said Operation Reveal, a weeklong campaign using unmarked vehicles to detect drivers failing to wear a seatbelt and using mobile phones, would be coming up in the next month.
Sarah Schwager
