Over the Anzac Day long weekend, ACT Policing will be conducting a zero tolerance, high visibility road operation to crack down on speeding.
ACT Policing Detective Station Sergeant Marcus Boorman spoke sternly to the media this morning, saying police have “had enough” of an increased number of road users flouting speed limits due to reduced traffic.
“There will be speed cameras out there but we’re all doing the best we can and I’m pleading with motorists out there to be responsible, do the right thing and obey the speed limit,” he said.
“We work within the laws and the powers that we have, and we will be enforcing them and there will be no discretion because people are obviously not getting the message.”
This ACT Policing speeding crackdown follows the death of four Victorian police officers in the line of duty last night, 22 April.
Two officers intercepted a Porsche 911 that was reportedly being driven at 140km/h by a driver under the influence of drugs on the Eastern Freeway at about 5.40pm.
Two members from highway patrol were called to assist at the scene, after which a large truck drove into the four officers.
“The truck itself appears to have moved from one of the traffic lanes in the freeway into the emergency lane and has travelled a short distance in the emergency lane at around about 100km/h and slammed into the rear of the highway patrol vehicle,” Victorian Police Commissioner Graham Ashton said.
This tragedy, combined with the sharp rise in speeding incidents detected locally, has spurred on ACT Policing to lay down the law with this speeding crackdown.
“The incident in Victoria yesterday, my heart goes out to the policing family down there, but that person was speeding,” Detective Station Sergeant Boorman said.
“The bottom line is, if that person wasn’t speeding, those four officers wouldn’t have been standing there, so I’m pleading with people to do the right thing and abide by the speed limits.”
Detective Station Sergeant Boorman said he’s “disgusted” by some of the behaviour his officers have witnessed from numerous road users of late.
“On the Saturday (18 April) there was a moron on a motorcycle doing in excess of 200km/h in a 90 zone.
“This person had never held a licence, and when he was spoken to by police … he had no idea of his actual speed and his reason was ‘I was just enjoying it’. That is not acceptable.
“I acknowledge the COVID situation is stressful for a lot of people and there’s less traffic on the road, but it doesn’t mean the roads in the ACT are someone’s personal racetrack.
“They’re not only gambling with their lives; they’re gambling with everyone’s life … It’s Russian roulette that people are playing with out there, and we’ve had enough.”
Recently, over a four-day period, one of ACT Policing’s traffic operations teams detected 43 people exceeding the speed limit by between 20-30km/h. A further nine motorists were clocked speeding 45km/h or more over the limit.
“I’m extremely concerned; you only have to look at the consequences of what can happen when people travel at those speeds,” Detective Station Sergeant Boorman said.
“The statistics and the data out there in relation to fatal collisions show speed is a contributing factor, and it’s a reality the faster you go, the harder the impact.”
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