Police keep watch after quiet Christmas

By Shaun Inguanzo
A QUIET Christmas on Greater Dandenong’s roads will not stop local traffic police from operating a citywide crackdown on drink driving this month.
Greater Dandenong Traffic Management Unit (TMU) Acting Senior Sergeant Harry Bradshaw said the Christmas and New Year period had been quiet and safe on the city’s roads.
But he warned people considering drink driving after further summer celebrations that police would still be out in force.
Acting Sen Sgt Bradshaw said the calm Christmas and New Year followed a busy beginning to the holiday season, when police ran the Antlers 06 operation before Christmas, targeting drink drivers leaving work Christmas parties.
He said the operation on the evening of 21 December netted 48 drivers for a variety of driving offences, including three motorists for drink driving.
Another driver’s car was impounded under anti-hooning laws for improper use of the vehicle.
“We targeted factory and office worker areas and set up random breath tests sites with marked and unmarked units,” Acting Sen Sgt Bradshaw said.
The only hitch during the operation was when a pedestrian fatality at Springvale Train Station on the same night diverted police members’ attention for more than two hours while they moved traffic away from Springvale Road.
But aside from Antlers 06, Acting Sen Sgt Bradshaw said the Christmas and New Year period had been quieter than expected.
“It has been a good Christmas. We haven’t had any serious collisions or fatals and most of the drivers have been well behaved,” he said.