General News
17 March, 2026
New top cop on road blitz frontline
POLICE stopped hundreds of motorists travelling Loddon Highways over the long weekend.
And on frontline duty was new Western Regional divisional commander Superintendent Paul Gardiner.
Superintendent Gardiner was with Leading Senior Constable Carol Vermaat from Wedderburn station and Leading Senior Constable Peter Halpin from Serpentine station conducting roadside breath tests in Inglewood on Saturday.
He said the weekend’s Operation Arid Blitz had aimed to reduce road trauma and positively influence driver behaviour.
Superintendent Gardiner said police had also targeted speeding, impaired drivers, distraction, fatigue and seatbelts and unauthorised driving – all major contributors to road trauma.
Across the Goldfields police area that includes Loddon Shire, police nabbed five drink drivers and one on drink-drug offences.
The weekend blitz detected 25 speeding offences while there were seven unregistered vehicles detected and two vehicles impounded.
Police also caught one disqualified driver and an unlicenced driver during the weekend blitz across Goldfields.
Superintendent Gardiner said that historically, the first three months of the year were the highest risk for road trauma.
“March is the month which experiences the highest volume of road trauma in both metro and regional Victoria,” he said. “March recorded the highest number of collisions in 2025, with more than 1600 collisions resulting in injuries across the month – 23 of which were fatal.”
Police conducted more than 110,000 breath tests across the state at the weekend.
Read More: Inglewood