That’s simply because of a significant increase in traffic on our roads.

Both country and city folk alike do their best to make the most of a long weekend or, as at Easter, an even bigger break.

And so the traffic hits the roads, usually from knock-off time on a Friday – though plenty make an earlier start – and then the return journey.

It’s pretty clear to see that on the Hume as the freeway weaves its way through Albury-Wodonga and other Border areas north and south.

Anyone who heads to Melbourne via Yea will also know how that especially dangerous road becomes a never-ending procession of utes and four-wheel-drives pulling caravans and boats, the Lake Eildon holiday traffic making for slow going.

That will be the situation again next month during Easter.

The inherent dangers of these big weekends are well-known, yet there is a real risk in thinking that motorists can somehow not pay as much attention at other times of the year.

We know that people are seriously injured and killed on any day of the week, but somehow our level of alertness is often only raised to a new level when there’s a high-profile police campaign.

The fact though that crashes can strike at any time has been made blatantly clear recently in the Border region in a terribly tragic way .

In the first incident at Myrrhee, a 47-year-old man died in hospital in Melbourne after he fell from the back of a trailer on the Upper Fifteen Creek Road. Just three days later a Melbourne man was killed when his bike was struck as he rode near Devenish. Their deaths came as three other people were killed on rural Victorian roads.

It all means that motorists have to remain vigilant at all times, making sure they not only don’t break the law by drink- or drug-driving or speeding but that they also take every care to watch others on the roads.

As assistant police commissioner Doug Fryer points out, this is something no one wants to happen. “Each one of those five people killed had a family, a history, a story. They’re not just a number in a toll.”

We would urge all road users to never drop their guard, as no one should have to have their story told in such a way.