Police nab 10 drink drivers on Gladstone region roads

“We still got 10 drink drivers...and six drug drivers,” Snr Sgt Jane Healy.

Gladstone Police senior sergeant Jane Healy.

EXTREME volumes of traffic on the region’s roads over the past week resulted in 10 drink drivers being caught by police, from 5000 breath tests conducted.

Fortunately, acting Calliope Road Policing Commander, Senior Sergeant Jane Healy said, none of the DUIs registered high-range readings.

“We still got 10 drink drivers in the Gladstone patrol group and six drug drivers,” she said.

“It seems to be the trend of catching more drug drivers than drink drivers has reversed now pubs and clubs are back open.

“For the patrol group we conducted approximately 5000 RBTs, which was for a number of reasons.

“Obviously for the spikes in statistics (recent fatal crashes), plus coinciding with the school holidays we conducted a major blitz.”

Social media was abuzz with comments about the blitz.

“There were a lot of comments about how many police were out doing RBTs and the locations,” she said.

“That’s good, as far as I’m concerned, because people got a really good reminder that we are still there and we are back doing static RBTs.”

A significant trend, Snr Sgt Healy said, was the large number of drivers with alcohol in their system.

“We also did notice that there were a lot more people than usual that were registering readings under .05,” she said.

“Having their one or two drinks after work, or at lunch.

“Not enough for them to be over the limit, and be in trouble, but we certainly did notice there were a lot more people...taking more chances.

“People were being less diligent than before and that just confirmed for me that’s what’s been going on.”

In welcome news for the Road Traffic Command, no high speeds were recorded.

“The highest reading for the district was at Fairy Bower, so that’s in Rocky’s area, that was 129 in a 70 zone, so we didn’t see any of the massive high speeds, which was good,” Snr Sgt Healy said.

“Today one of my staff came in and said they caught someone in the 90s in a 60 zone.”