THIRTEEN drivers were each fined $289 for driving past a police vehicle with flashing lights at more than 40kph, Thursday 28 May.
Somerville Highway Patrol officers conducted Operation Safe-Mate as a result of being “thoroughly fed up with motorists whizzing past at speed while [we are] standing on the side of the road”.
They say the issue was highlighted by the quadruple police fatality on the Eastern Freeway in April.
Officers patrolled the Mornington Peninsula Freeway between Moorooduc and Rosebud, targeting speeding and general traffic offences while enforcing the passing emergency vehicle at 40kph rule which was introduced in July 2017.
One police unit dealt with an offending motorist, while a second further up the road checked the speed of vehicles passing the first unit.
Police said “discretion was used” with all those fined doing at least 80kph – double the mandatory 40kph – past the police vehicle with the flashing lights.
As well as the 13 drivers fined, police also detected three unregistered vehicles, two drivers under suspension, five speeding drivers (including a P2 P-plater, from Mt Martha, allegedly driving at 146kph on the Moorooduc Highway while “testing out [a] new differential”. They also impounded one vehicle.
Operation Safe-Mate will be run again on roads in Frankston and on the Mornington Peninsula.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 9 June 2020
