Last weekend saw the closure of Operation Uniform Spring Break, the Queensland Police Service (QPS) road safety campaign that targeted dangerous driving behaviour across the state over the September school holidays.
During the two-week operation beginning 17 September, more than 7900 traffic offences have been detected across the state, with speeding, not wearing a seatbelt and drink and drug driving featuring prominently.
Road Policing and Regional Support Command Acting Chief Superintendent Chris Stream praised the dedication of that state’s officers in enhancing and protecting community safety, and called on the community to join the drive to improve road safety.
“In terms of the rubber hitting the road, officers have dedicated more than 18,000 hours toward this operation, with lots of early morning and late finishes through all types of weather to educate motorists and enforce the road rules in a bid to save lives,” Acting Chief Superintendent Stream said.
“They see the worst of the worst when it comes to road trauma and their motivation is to see no more lives lost on our roads.
“Any police officer will tell you, we never forget the lives behind those numbers – their tragedy becomes our trauma, our motivator is to curb this needless heartache and we no make apologies for doing so.
“Officers conducted over 39,000 Roadside Breath Tests, resulting in 521 positive results returned and conducted more than one thousand Roadside Drug Tests resulting in 344 positive results returned.
“Of particular frustration to police is the message still not getting through when it comes mobile phones and seatbelts – with 100 and 93 motorists being fined respectively.
“Cumulatively, that’s $208,054 and 772 loss of demerit points. Had these motorists heeded our warnings, which have been plentiful, and don’t the right thing, they would avoid these consequences.”
Acting Chief Superintendent Stream urged motorists planning a trip away to put safety first.
“Unfortunately, 13 lives were lost on our roads during the operation, with the 2022 lives lost amount currently at 225, an increase of 21 compared to last year,” he said.
“We cannot be on every corner, and poor decisions can very easily be prevented by checking in with yourself and others.
“We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, road safety is everyone’s responsibility. While calling out a friend or family members poor driving can be a hard conversation to have, it may very well be life-saving—I’d encourage everyone to get comfortable having these chats.”
