When you’re booked for doing 60km/h, it’s …

By Melissa Meehan
A DALMORE business has accused police of “revenue raising” after two of his staff members were booked for speeding over the Manks Road bridges.
But Pakenham Police Acting Senior Sergeant Ray De Reus says police are only trying to prevent injury over the rundown bridges.
The Momack Produce team wrote to the Gazette complaining about police charging people for overweight and speeding vehicles on the bridge.
In one day, two staff members were booked, one for driving 60 kilometres per hour in a 40 km/h zone and the other for driving an overweight truck.
“In both instances police were inconsiderate and took no practicality and common sense into account,” employee James Terry said. “Momack has properties on both sides of the bridges and therefore requires access over the bridges for cars and trucks to save time and money.
He said the maximum weight allowed over the bridge is 15 tonnes and the booked truck had a gross vehicle mass of 16 tonnes but said the truck was empty and would have weighed less than seven tonnes.
“Some common sense needs to be taken into account for the access to our farms,” he said. “The speed limit is 40km/h which is unreasonable, yes the bridges are damaged but they are still usable.”
He maintained that despite Sgt De Reus’ information that the bridges were badly damaged and dangerous speeds could quicken the rate they deteriorated, no-one’s safety was being jeopardised.
“Clearly it is a money raising act by the government,” Mr Terry said. “Farmers are not treated well at the best of times and no tolerance being given by the policemen is unfair and completely unacceptable.”
Sgt De Reus said police were doing their job and the fines were not a case of revenue raising.
“Why is it unfair to reduce the speed limit?” he asked. “People need to slow down over the bridges, it is all about reducing injury.”
He said police presence was often the only way drivers would slow down.
“We’ve all seen the horror stories out there, and I know for a fact that when people drive over those bridges at a speed faster than 40km/h they actually shake,” he said. “They will be fixed over time, but until then, like we did with Kooweerup Road, we will be there to reduce the risk of injury.”