There was nowhere to hide for drivers on drugs, alcohol or with outstanding fines on Monday.
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A Hume Freeway rest stop, off the southbound lanes of the Hume Freeway at Glenrowan, was filled with 16 Wangaratta officers helped by the latest police technology.
A van using automated number plate recognition technology scanned cars driving south, instantly identifying cars which were unroadworthy or linked to drivers owing money.
Further up the road, police were waiting.
Two drivers tested positive for amphetamines, but all 1156 drivers breath-tested were under the alcohol limit.
Police also found seven trucks with defects, six unregistered vehicles and two suspended licences.
Glenrowan Leading Senior Constable Ross Woodrow said police conducted Operation Combined, with VicRoads and the sheriff's office, four times per year.
“Our target is to reduce the road toll – every number plate is scanned, every driver is breath-tested,” he said.
The North East had one of the fastest-growing road tolls, already at 14 compared with six for all of 2015.
Our target is to reduce the road toll – every number plate is scanned, every driver is breath-tested.
- Leading Senior Constable Ross Woodrow
Leading Senior Constable Woodrow said it was important to focus on ways to reduce to road toll, especially after Victoria Police regulations to improve safety meant officers could no longer patrol alone.
“There’s a lot less police on the road with the new two-up policy,” he said.
“Nearly everyone you test says the same thing, they’re just so happy to see police on the road testing.”
The operation came as the Victorian government announced an extra 1000 police shifts for stations around the state over the next four months, funded by the TAC.
Roads and Road Safety Minister Luke Donnellan said police command would offer extra shifts to officers on their days off between September and Christmas to avoid diverting resources from other areas of policing.
“Our road safety agencies have been working with us around the clock to find ways to stop 2016 becoming our worst year on the roads in nearly a decade,” he said.
“We know that enforcement and public education are the two areas where we can have an immediate impact on the way people use our roads.”
