Police conduct annual Warrego Highway blitz
'Remember the Fatal Five' was the message behind a massive police blitz on the Warrego Highway today.
Gatton
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'Remember the Fatal Five' was the message behind a massive police blitz on the Warrego Highway today.
More than 60 police officers from a number of police stations in the Darling Downs joined forces to carry out Operation 'Cold Snap', just east of Gatton.
The operation saw officers randomly stop drivers in both the eastbound and westbound lanes.
Police are yet to finalise results from the operation but said a number of tickets were issued to do with drug driving, suspended licenses and other traffic infringements.
Darling Downs District Toowoomba Police Senior Sergeant Jeff Dooley said the operation took place at this time every year.
"It happens every year in conjunction with the school holidays where you see a higher amount of vehicular travel on the Warrego Highway in both directions," he said.
"It's simply to raise awareness about fatigue and to keep people on their toes.
"If we see through today without having to issue any infringement notices whatsoever we're happy but if we're waking people up and they're seeing the police and having the necessary breaks on their journey, well that's one of our primary objectives."
Snr Sgt Dooley said the operation was to help reduce the road toll.
"I know the southern region has suffered quite a number of fatalities and this is just one of a suite of measures we're embarking upon to address that," he said.
"We're targeting big and small, we've got the ANPR (Australian National Number Plate Recognition) vehicles on site targeting unregistered vehicles, unlicensed drivers and of course stolen vehicles.
"We've also got our own drug testing unit and we've got police from as far away as Capalaba road policing unit, Ipswich, and we're assisted by the Warwick road policing unit also."
He said they planned to test as many people and be seen by as many motorists as possible.
Originally published as Police conduct annual Warrego Highway blitz
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