Forest Hill police: Springfield and Mahoney’s Rd worst for speeding

They should know the importance of driving safely around schools more than anyone, but police have been “disheartened” to discover this group are the main offenders when it comes to speeding through 40km/h zones in Whitehorse.

Police targeted drivers speeding through Whitehorse school zones.

Springfield Rd in Blackburn North and Mahoney’s Rd in Forest Hill have been identified as offending hot spots for drivers speeding through school zones in Whitehorse.

More than 20 drivers were caught breaking the law in the two zones — outside Blackburn High School and Burwood Heights Primary School — in just one day as uniform police targeted unsafe driving around schools in the municipality.

One woman, caught travelling at 54km/h on Springfield Rd at school pick-up time, had just collected her own children from primary school, according to Forest Hill Senior Constable Curtis Williams.

Constable Tom Dolheguy and Senior Constable Curtis Williams targeted hoons on Springfield Rd.

“It was disheartening to see,” he said.

But Sen-Constable Williams said the majority of culprits police found speeding past schools tended to be parents and locals — who were used to passing the school zone.

“They’re usually on their way home from having picked their kids up, or going to pick their kids up,” he said.

“Or they’ll just be running through on autopilot because they live two minutes down the road.”

Of the 16 drivers police caught speeding in the school zone on Springfield Rd on Tuesday, September 10, the majority were from Blackburn North and Box Hill, and at least four had children in the car.

Sen-Constable Williams said several of the offending drivers were elderly, which also tended to be a common trend.

The strip outside Burwood Heights Primary School is a hotspot for speeding during school times.

Police stopped seven drivers speeding past Burwood Heights Primary School, including one driving at 60km/h.

Sen-Constable Williams said Springfield Rd and Mahoneys Rd had “significant issues with speed” because of their high volumes of traffic.

“Both are main thoroughfares for traffic at all times of the day as they connect to a main road at either end.”

During the operation, police also caught drivers speeding on Morack Rd outside Vermont Secondary College, and on Eley Rd in Blackburn near Blackburn English Language School.

Sen-Constable Williams said police were trying to crackdown on drivers’ tolerance for “low-range speeding”.

“That becomes more of a significant issue within our school zones obviously because we’ve got children who don’t have road awareness. We’ve got large volumes of young people.”

“Schools are high-risk zones.”

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Sen-Constable Williams said one driver police pulled over for speeding said, “It’s only 50,” while several said they thought they had slowed down “enough”.

He said while some people didn’t intend to be speeding in school zones, police wanted to encourage people to be more vigilant.

Police targeted the school zones in full uniform on Tuesday to remind drivers to be alert.

“Many people still need to slow down in school zones and have a greater awareness of the road and their surroundings,” Sen-Constable Williams said.

On the same day, police caught seven other drivers speeding outside of school zones and nine drivers committing general traffic offences across Whitehorse.