Beware on back roads

Great Southern police will ramp up their patrols on back roads in 2020 after 18 people lost their lives in the region last year. Officer in charge of Great Southern traffic Sgt Derek Grimes said there were 28 serious crashes in the region during 2019, with most happening off the main roads. “They’re scattered throughout the whole Great Southern region, not necessarily on the main highways,” Sgt Grimes said. “Out of those 28 serious and fatal crashes, only two were on the Albany Highway, two on Great Southern Highway and three on South Coast Highway.” Sgt Grimes said there would be more police targeting dangerous driving on back and side roads. “If people think they can stay off the main roads with suspended drivers licences or drink or drug-drive on these back roads ... they’ll be seeing that we are out patrolling at some of the unusual times throughout the whole day and going through some of these back roads as well,” he said. “So you’ll never know where we’ll pop out.” Not wearing a seatbelt was one particular offence Sgt Grimes intended to focus on. “Seatbelts save lives, it’s as simple as that,” he said “I’m actually quite disturbed that people are still driving without seatbelts but we’ll try to change that attitude.”