By ANEEKA SIMONIS
MORE than 200 people have been injured or seriously injured on Cardinia Shire roads in the past 12 months.
According to Cardinia Highway Patrol, 231 people have been injured on the roads in the past year, up on last year’s count of collisions causing injury.
Sergeant Allen Inderwisch said the statistics were alarming, issuing an urgent warning to drivers on local roads.
“It’s concerning to see people’s driving behaviour isn’t the best at times. It’s this type of driving behaviour that contributes to road trauma which we are trying to drive down,” Sgt Inderwisch said.
“Motorists need to do the right thing on the roads.”
Police have amped up their road patrols in the past few weeks, handing out 270 offences.
Of those, more than 80 per cent were speed-related offences.
Police also handed out 18 fines to people driving unregistered vehicles and 12 defect notices.
Car defects are causing police major concerns in Cardinia Shire, with the highway unit issuing a recent warning to drivers with unroadworthy cars.
Balding tyres and broken headlights topped the list of defects observed by highway officers.
“We have had a real spike in the number of defect notices issued in the past two months … it’s a lot more than we would usually do,” Sgt Inderwisch told the Gazette weeks ago.
Cardinia Highway Patrol officers are continuing their targeted patrols and urged all road users to respect speed limits and avoid distractions when behind the wheel.
