Operation Safe Corridor was conducted on the Western Highway across March 7 and 8. Police were enforcing the Road and Safety Rule, where cars must slow to 40km/h when passing a stationary or slow-moving emergency vehicle. 

Sergeant Eddie Malpas of Horsham said the volume of traffic travelling through the region meant there was a good opportunity for police to educate drivers.

The rule was put in place in Victoria on July 1, 2017. 

“There were a lot of people travelling from other states and we aimed at also making them aware the rule applies here,” he said. 

Motorists must slow to 40km/h when passing emergency vehicles that have either red and blue flashing lights, magenta flashing lights or an alarm sounding.

Sergeant Malpas said 40km/h was the chosen speed limit because it was the maximum speed pedestrians were likely to survive vehicle impact. He said Victoria Police research showed a pedestrian struck by a vehicle travelling 30km/h had a 95 per cent survival rate. 

Sergeant Malpas called on people to educate themselves about the new rule and said it wasn’t commonly followed yet.

“It was alarming to see so many people still speeding,” he said. 

Sergeant Malpas said police had stopped vehicles travelling on the Western Highway for regular check-ups or breath tests and to monitor the speed of drivers throughout the operation. 

He said one officer would monitor the vehicles travelling past and note the speed they were travelling while the other would respond to the vehicle they had stopped.

“As a result we gave out 10 speeding penalty notices and gave over 20 cautions who were passing the stationary emergency vehicle (over 40km/h),” he said. 

“We also intercepted a driver who had exceeded the prescribed concentration of alcohol during the day and detected four other offences on drivers including licensing offences.” 

He deemed the operation a success.

“We were able to issue a large number of cautions to drivers and got the word out there that this rule is in place,” he said. “We believe we educated the motorists and as a result of the operation detected other offences by drivers.”