By Victoria Stone-Meadows
The Cranbourne area was home to more drink drivers than anywhere else in the state over the 2015-16 financial year.
Postcode 3977, which covers an area from Cannons Creek to Cranbourne North, was home to 89 drivers who were fined for drink driving in the 12 month period with on-the-spot fines totalling $42,015.
Statistics from the Department of Justice and Regulation show that the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne are home to the highest number of drink drivers in the state.
Cranbourne topped the list of the five highest suburbs in the state for drink driving residents with Werribee, Hoppers Crossing, Dandenong and Pakenham rounding out the top five.
In comparison, during the 2014-15 financial year Cranbourne was home to 123 drink drivers with the total value of fines in that period coming to $58,421.
While police say it is rare for one person to be fined for drunk driving multiple times, over 2015-16, one Pearcedale driver and one Narre Warren driver were each fined three times.
Senior Sergeant Scott Roberts from the Greater Dandenong Highway Patrol has road safety responsibilities across the south-east suburbs.
He said there were two sides to the statistics.
“This is a good news story and a bad one,” he said.
“These issues go unreported unless they are detected so these figures show the guys are out there doing their jobs.”
Snr Sgt Roberts said while it is good to see drink driving numbers decreasing, police still take the offence very seriously.
“People are slowing getting the message,” he said.
“I think there has been a cultural move broadly away from drink driving and it has become more of a socially unacceptable thing to do.
“Back in the day, people caught drink driving considered themselves unlucky but as a society we are realising it’s just unacceptable.”
According to the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) across the 2014 and 2015 calendar years, 48 drivers and motorcyclists who had a BAC greater than .05 lost their lives.
Snr Sgt Roberts said it was encouraging to see the drink driving numbers in Cranbourne had gone down despite the massive population boom of the area.
“Police are always dedicated to reducing drink driving across all roads and streets but even if it is a question of the capacity of police to detect drivers or one of people are getting the message, it is good news story across a really big population.”
Residents in Cranbourne and across the state are being reminded to be particularly careful not to drive over the limit over the Easter and Anzac Day long weekends.
“Operation Nexus starts on Thursday 13 April and has a state-wide focus on drink and drug driving and speeding over the holiday period,” Snr Sgt Roberts said.
Operation Nexus will continue through to 25 April and will have additional police cars on the road with all police stations dedicating resources to the operation.
