POLICE were praising the behaviour of motorists travelling in the area across the long weekend, however say the number of drivers caught speeding is still a concern.
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Port police handed out 54 speeding fines during Operation Slowdown, the high-visibility state-wide police traffic operation that ran from midnight Friday, October 2 until 11.59pm Monday, October 5.
This was seven less than the previous October long weekend.
Chief Inspector Trent Le-Merton, the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command’s Northern Region traffic tactician, said the motorists travelling in the Hunter were well behaved this year.
‘‘The conduct of motorists was found to be, generally, in good stead,’’ he said.
‘‘There is always going to be incidents of poor conduct.
‘‘This weekend, however, there were fewer people charged with PCA [drink driving] offences [across the Northern Region] and fewer people injured in motor vehicle accidents than the same period last year.’’
Port Stephens police and officers from the Traffic and Highway Patrol Command conducted 1541 random breath tests across the weekend, almost double the 841 done the same time in 2014.
Accurate statistics showing how many drink or drug driving offences were detected from the RBTs was not available on Tuesday, Chief Inspector Le-Merton said.
In addition to the 54 speeding fines, the Port police handed out two seatbelt infringements and 42 ‘other’ infringements.
There were no fatal collisions in Port Stephens, however police were called to two minor vehicle incidents along Nelson Bay Road at Bobs Farm on Monday.
Port Stephens crime manager Detective Inspector George Radmore said the collisions were the result of ‘‘traffic bank up’’ on the Nelson Bay dual carriage way between Bobs Farm and Salt Ash, heading towards Newcastle.
Port Stephens MP Kate Washington, who became caught in the traffic about 5pm on Monday, took to Facebook to again raise Nelson Bay Road duplication issue.
‘‘With kilometres of end-of-holiday traffic jams across Port Stephens, there is a clear need for the Government to honour its commitments to duplicate the next stretch of Nelson Bay Rd and to connect the M1 to fix the ‘‘Hexham snarl’’,’’ Ms Washington said in her Facebook post.
