Eagle eye on drivers

POLICE have launched a new intelligence-based operation in Melbourne’s south-east in a bid to halt the region’s rising road toll.
A strike-force of the division’s top traffic police will target hotspots in the Cardinia Shire, City of Casey and Greater Dandenong under Operation Eagles.
The operation, launched in the City of Casey last week, comes after a Lynbrook intersection claimed the lives of five young people, all aged 21 or under, in just two weeks.
Just hours after the most recent fatality, police intercepted a motorist travelling at 106km/h in a 60km/h zone on Hallam Road, just north of the deadly intersection.
Region 5 Division 2 Superintendent Shane Patton said police were baffled by motorists’ behaviour despite the obvious safety risks and media coverage of two fatal collisions at the Lynbrook intersection last week.
“A split second of unlawful driving can cause a lifetime of trag-edy for families and friends,” he said.
“Despite front page stories with pictures of mangled cars and grieving families some motorists continue to believe ‘it won’t happen to them’.
“But I’m sure the families of those five young people will attest that it certainly does happen to you, and when it does, it is absolutely devastating.”
Over the period of 11 and 12 July, Casey traffic police performed a blitz on road users in Lynbrook and surrounding suburbs of Casey and nabbed 22 people for failing to wear seatbelts.
They also caught 29 speedsters, including one doing 108 km/h in an 80 km/h zone along Clyde Road, Berwick, four unlicensed drivers and one disqualified driver, nine unregistered motor vehicles, five drivers using their mobile phones and one drink-driver.