SWAN Hill police have praised the behaviour of long weekend racegoers and motorists.
The June Racing Carnival brought bumper crowds to the area, with travellers making the most of the three-day break.
Senior Sergeant Brad Bennett said police were very pleased with the crowd behaviour.
“We were really pleased with the crowd behaviour at the race carnival,” he said.
“The people have gone there and had great time. There was very little trouble that required police intervention, so it was very pleasing indeed.
“We had a couple of minor incidents, but that’s no different to most weekends.
“The race club do a fantastic job of organisation and keeping things in order.
“One big help was Swan Hill Club providing a bus that would bring people away from the race meeting and into town.
“That was an amazing gesture on their part and certainly helped to keep people from wandering the streets.”
Victoria Police were also out and about keeping the roads safe over the long weekend, with the three-day Operation Regal.
Sen-Sgt Bennett said keeping local roads safe had been a key focus for Swan Hill police.
“Being a long weekend, you have a lot of people travelling,” he said.
“We conducted a lot of preliminary breath tests and we were very happy with all those results.
“We didn’t have any adverse reactions from people in response to the operation, I think people just accepted that we would be out and about.”
Across Victorian roads, police detected more than 6500 offences for Operation Regal.
This included removing 366 alcohol or drug affected drivers from the road, and more than 102,000 tests conducted.
There were two lives were lost on the state’s roads, bringing this year’s road toll to 143 deaths, up from 106 at the same time last year.
Sen-Sgt Bennett said he hoped people would begin to take the messaging around road safety to heart.
“I don’t know how we can drum this message in any clearer,” he said.
“It just feels like it has become white noise to some people.
“Nearly all the collisions are caused by neglect of one or more drivers and it’s frustrating. Everyone thinks it will never happen to them, until it does.
“So many people are affected by the lives lost on our roads, it’s really heartbreaking.”
While he thanked people for their behaviour over the three days, Sen-Sgt Bennett also asked for more co-operation on our roads.
“We all need to look out for each other,” he said.
“A little bit of courtesy goes a long way when it comes to road use, just take that little bit of extra time and hopefully we will be able to drive that road toll down.”
