Operation Crossroads – State wide enforcement activities (cumulative Total)

 Note:  This is a cumulative report comparing this stage in this year’s operation to the same stage in last year’s operation.

This is the Final report for Operation Crossroads.

For the Easter period this year Tasmania Police have attended no fatal crashes, however, 2 serious crashes have occurred. This is a decrease on even the low levels of the successful Easter road safety campaign of 2016.  The operation also ran for an extra day than previous years.

Tasmania Police are extremely happy with the results. The officers out on the streets in the marked and unmarked cars you see (or may not see) and those standing at the RBT sites you may have been pulled up at, have worked tirelessly to keep the roads as safe as they could make them this year.

The crash statistics speak for themselves and it appears that Tasmanians and tourists on our roads have been heeding the message to slow down, take breaks, pay attention, wear seatbelts and stay off their mobile phones.  Combined, these factors play a large part in our serious and fatal crash statistics.

Of course, police alone cannot make the roads safe.  Although over the past week police have sighted some clear examples of those in our community who have not been respecting the road safety message it is clear that the vast majority Tasmanian’s are driving in a manner that have ensured they get home safely after their Easter break.

It is our hope that in the days and months to come that Tasmanians continue to drive with the care, respect and courtesy that we have seen over the past seven days.

With the end of this specific intense period of traffic policing, drivers should still expect to see police on our roads.  We will continue to enforce this road safety message in the effort to ensure no more people die on our roads this year.  It may seem like an unrealistic goal but it is the goal we should all be aiming for in the months to come.

The simple fact is that no-one has to die on our roads.  These crashes are preventable and that should be at the forefront of driver’s minds when they get into their vehicles each day, especially when embarking on a longer trip.

Please continue to take care on our roads.

 Incidents

No Significant incidents overnight.

Drink Driving

54 people have been detected drink driving this Easter.  This year is 14 higher than last year, however the operation has run for an extra day and police have conducted a significantly higher number random breath tests.  When comparing the figures to last year, the figures remain relatively similar.  In 2016 police detected one drink driver for every 358 drivers tested. This year there has been a slight increase to one drink driver to every 347 tests.

 Drug Driving –Increase in Positive Oral Fluid Tests

134 Oral Fluid tests have been conducted on drivers so far this Easter period.  Of those, 81 have returned positive results and been subjected to further testing (blood).  The number of positive drug driver tests has almost doubled than at the same time last year.  However, this is as a result of an increase in the number of tests that have been conducted.

Due to the impost on drivers and police resources regarding the amount of time Oral Fluid Tests (OFT’s) take, OFT’s are a much more targeted test than a random breath test (as the name would suggest).  There are occasions where oral fluid tests will be conducted on a random basis, however, Police generally use local knowledge, observations of driving and driver behaviour and intelligence to identify the subjects of these tests, hence the much higher positive result per test than an RBT.

Previous statistics indicate that the most common drugs found in these tests are cannabis and amphetamine.