Police in the MIA have completed a “successful” road operation over the fatality-free long weekend.
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Speaking to The Area News on Friday, Chief Inspector John Wadsworth of Griffith LAC said the main aims of Operation Safe Return was two-fold – to raise awareness of fatigue on our roads, and most importantly to see a fatality-free weekend.
Now the operation has concluded, he was thrilled at the outcome.
“We had a fatality-free long weekend which was our aim, and we are very happy with that,” he said.
Over the course of the weekend, general duty officers conducted over 4300 Random Breath Tests, handed out 56 tickets for offences such as using a mobile phone while driving, four infringements for not wearing seat belts, and other traffic infringements.
Overall, they issued 116 tickets for those caught travelling over the speed limit.
“Our aim was to try to get the message across that fatigue is a major killer on our roads, and we focused on high risk areas, such as the Sturt and Kidman Highways, and to give people the opportunity to have a break,” he said.
“One of the good things we noticed was at the Birdcage as part of the operation, when we pulled up some of the larger vehicles, they took on board what we said and got out and had a stretch and spoke to us, which is what we like to see.”
Throughout the entirety of Operation Safe Arrival across NSW, there were over 4890 infringements issued for speeding, 7714 infringements issued for other offences, and 285 people were charged with drink driving.
Three people died on NSW roads, one less than last year in for the same operation, with 303 major crashes reported and 91 people injured.
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