Police urge caution on roads as visitors go home

Great Southern police have urged drivers to remain vigilant, believing the high volume of traffic in the region will persist until after Anzac Day on Thursday, when many will return home.

Regional enforcement officers from Perth were deployed to the region for the four-day Easter break which concluded yesterday.

The bolstered road safety effort came after a horror run on Great Southern roads the previous weekend when three men were killed in separate crashes.

As of yesterday morning, 194 drivers had been detected speeding, while four drivers had been caught drink-driving at excess 0.08, and two under the influence of alcohol out of more than 3000 roadside breath tests.

A 44-year-old man was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after being caught by police at 1.30pm on Thursday with a blood alcohol reading of 0.179.

Great Southern police Superintendent Ian Clarke said most drivers were well behaved across the long weekend but officers were bracing for the busy period to continue.

“The bigger aspect is most people are actually joining up the Easter and Anzac breaks so they are making a full week of it and we are seeing a large sum of people remaining down here, so the message to my people and everybody is remain vigilant and focus on your driving as it remains a very high risk period now going into next weekend as well,” Supt Clarke said.

“Most people are doing the right thing, which is good to see.

“The most displeasing thing is impatience and poor decision making on overtaking and that sort of stuff when there is a lot of traffic on the roads.”

Police handed out 88 speeding infringements across the weekend, while the speed camera had nabbed 94 speeding drivers after monitoring 9091 cars.

Supt Clarke said it was “very concerning” that eight drivers had tested positive to driving with illicit drugs out of 14 tests.

He said drivers had responded positively to the Easter Fatigue Road Stop on Albany Highway on Thursday where more than 1000 cars were stopped in four hours.