Victoria Police’s highway patrol issued about 60 penalty notices in the Horsham service area during the weekend’s Operation Constellate, aimed at motorists’ road safety during the AFL’s South Australian-based Gather Round.

Horsham Highway Patrol Sergeant Dale McIvor said drink-driving, speed, fatigue and seatbelt use were targeted on major arterial routes and metro feeder roads between Melbourne and the South Australian border. 

“Our main name was enforcement, but our ultimate aim was to make sure people safely traversed the area to and from Gather Round,” he said.

“We did that, but the only disappointing thing was that we got a lot of speeders, particularly west of Nhill. 

“The majority of our offending motorists were not from our area, they were travelling through. It’s good from a local perspective, but poor from a statewide perspective.”

Sgt McIvor said a fatal incident occurred in the area on Monday, but it was not associated with Gather Round. “We had a single vehicle fatal collision at Minimay on the Edenhope-Kaniva Road, about half-way between Edenhope and Kaniva,” he said. 

“A 58-year-old man from South Australia was driving a truck south, and ran off the road to the west, where the single occupant suffered fatal injuries as a result. 

“We’re still investigating the cause – we’re not satisfied that it’s not a medical episode – and fortunately, no one else was involved.”

Sgt McIvor said Operation Constellate, from Thursday, April 9 to Monday, April 13, did not have the traffic flow of the Easter long weekend.

“There was significant, but intermittent, traffic and on the whole, drivers were well-behaved,” he said.

“We are happy that the operation itself went off without a hitch, but the sour note again was the fatal collision.” 

– Bronwyn Hastings

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