Victoria’s booze buses off the road in wake of fire

Victoria Police’s entire fleet of trouble-plagued booze buses are off the road after one went up in flames on Easter Sunday.

A police booze bus became engulfed in flames while conducting a routine operation on Easter Sunday.

Victoria Police booze buses are off the road for a second time after one of the fleet caught fire.

The force will rely on mobile testing by officers with handheld units as electrical ­engineers work to get to the bottom of what went wrong.

They will examine each of the state’s alcohol and drug-testing buses.

Emergency services were called to a testing site on the Maroondah Highway in Lilydale on Sunday after one of the booze buses suddenly went up in flames.

Members operating the ­station were able to get away unharmed before firefighters brought the blaze under ­control. There were early indications the fire was caused by a fault in the vehicle’s rear electrical signage.

It was initially decided to cease use of the signage but senior police on Wednesday decided to take the entire fleet off the road.

A booze bus alight on the Maroondah Highway at Lilydale.

Victoria’s old booze buses have been decommissioned and cannot be brought in as temporary replacements. It is not clear how long the current models will be out of action.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the safety of officers and the public was top priority and that testing would continue by other means.

“It’s important to remember every police car can breath-test a driver. Whether it is our general-duty vans, highway patrol or solo unit — we will continue to be out alcohol and drug testing drivers,” she said.

It is believed the current issues are not related to steering and handling issues, which previously plagued the fleet before being rectified.

The Sunday Herald Sun last year revealed a litany of booze bus problems, including steering so bad that they veered from their lanes and scraped the roadway. There were also cases of flashing lights not working and other faults which forced them off the road.

The booze bus fleet was also off the road for between March and November last year as a precaution prompted by the coronavirus epidemic.

Victoria is viewed as a pioneer in the fight against the scourge of drink-driving.

It is regarded as a key factor in the state’s successful battle to reduce the road toll.

Since 1997, tens of millions of drivers have been tested for alcohol and, in more recent years, for impairment by drugs.

But the drink-drive issue remains stubbornly present despite the decades of heavy enforcement and education efforts by authorities. VicRoads says 17 per cent of drivers killed on the state’s roads have a blood-alcohol reading over the legal limit of .05 per cent.