Police nab 200+ speeders around region in blitz

Last week seven drug drivers and 15 drink drivers were caught around Gladstone.

Calliope Road Policing Unit Commander Senior Sergeant Shaune English said more than 200 drivers were caught speeding in the region in the past week.

FOUR police cars and 10 police in high-vis clothing still didn’t stop drivers getting clocked speeding around Gladstone yesterday, prompting police to plead with drivers to “open their eyes”.

Calliope Road Policing Unit Commander Senior Sergeant Shaune English said officers were being trained in the latest LIDAR radar detector technology when “blind” drivers still sped by.

“LIDAR are the hand held speed detections devices and we ran one of those courses this week and yesterday they were out doing their practical day,” he said.

“There were four marked police cars and 10 police officers wearing high-vis vests and they still had people speeding when driving towards them.

“So my message is “open your eyes”.

“The fact is there were (so many police) and people were still speeding when driving towards them.”

Over the past week, Snr Sgt English said, an average number of drivers were caught speeding.

“My officers issued more than 200 speeding tickets in the past week,” he said.

“Over the same period, seven people got caught drug driving and 15 drink driving around the Gladstone region.

“The average number of speeding drivers caught in the region in 2019 was 240 a week.”

Despite the numbers being higher around Gladstone the past week for drink drivers, Snr Sgt English said police still catch more people drug driving.

“On average, the number of drug drivers caught every week is still higher (than drink drivers),” he said.

Pinpointing an area of more prevalent drug driving wasn’t possible, Snr Sgt English said.

“They are everywhere, we catch drug drivers everywhere,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter where my officers go they catch drug drivers.”

While there were no radical speeds clocked by police, Snr Sgt English said the amount drivers were speeding by had reduced.

“It used to be 15km/h or more that we would catch a lot of people doing, and now it is more like seven or eight,” he said.

“Technology in cars has improved and cruise control has improved to the point where it now brakes for you going down hill.

“But we still catch people speeding every day.”

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