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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Peter Brewer

Cold comfort for a warm pizza: Deakin dash in Audi S3 costs $1800 and six points

Detective acting inspector Paul Hutcheson. Picture by Karleen Minney

The driver of a blue, turbocharged Audi S3 had a very expensive pizza run on Saturday night when he was clocked at 155kmh on Yarra Glen in Deakin during a period of double demerits.

Dashing home to keep his pizza warm cost the Audi driver $1800 in fines and six demerits points for exceeding the posted speed limit by 45kmh.

Police issued 207 traffic infringement notices during the recently concluded National Safety Safety Week, including detecting 43 unregistered vehicles, 37 uninsured vehicles, and issuing 46 speeding offences.

The week got off to a bad start for four drivers who faced court on Monday, May 15 for a range of offences.

Of the 46 speeding offences, three drivers were fined for exceeding the posted speed limit by more than 45kmh.

During the week, police also conducted 642 random breath tests, with two drivers returning a positive result. There were also 15 roadside drug tests conducted with three drivers returning positive results.

One of these, a 30-year-old Isabella Plains man was arrested about 9.10am on Tuesday, May 23 after his vehicle was identified as unregistered by a police onboard automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system.

Police were about to conduct a traffic stop on the man's vehicle when the driver stopped his car and fled on foot. After a short foot pursuit he was arrested, with subsequent checks revealing he had a warrant for failing to appear before the court in relation to a previous drug-driving matter.

The driver's oral swab returned a positive result for methamphetamine. He has been charged with drug driving, unlicensed driving, driving while suspended, and drug possession.

This vehicle was one of many identified as part of a joint ANPR operation between Road Policing and the Proactive Intervention and Diversion (PID) teams on Drakeford Drive between Barr Smith Drive and Athllon Drive.

Across a two-hour period, the ANPR technology identified 49 alerts, with these vehicles stopped and a range of actions taken from issuing of infringement notices through to reminding drivers of vehicle registration or insurance and driver licensing requirements.

The Officer in Charge (OIC) of Road Policing, Detective Acting Inspector Paul Hutcheson said police generally were happy with driver behaviour during the targeted operations.

"While there were some drivers who came to police attention, it was encouraging that we identified very few impaired drivers, while it's also pleasing that we saw no collisions involving serious injuries," Detective Acting Inspector Hutcheson said.

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