Southern regions accounted for almost a quarter of Queensland’s drunks behind the wheel since Thursday.
Southern regions accounted for almost a quarter of Queensland’s drunks behind the wheel since Thursday. Luka Kauzlaric

Southern regions drivers too fast and too drunk

WE are too fast, too drunk and driving up the state's Easter holiday road statistics.

Drivers in the Toowoomba, Ipswich and Warwick regions accounted for almost a quarter of Queensland's drunks behind the wheel since Thursday.

And more than 20% of the state's mobile speed fines were issued in the southern police region up to midnight on Sunday.

Sixty-eight drunks have been taken off our roads since the Easter four-day break kicked off.

State-wide, police have busted 303 drink-drivers - 22.4% were found in the southern district.

Mobile radars have caught 3799 speedsters - 775, or just over 20%, of those were in this region.

Since Thursday, 26 people have been injured in crashes on the district's roads.

Police have conducted 11,353 road breath tests and issued fines for 26 seatbelt offences, 29 mobile phone offences and 383 other traffic infringements.

Fixed speed cameras have nabbed 1700 speeders.

Queensland Road Policing Command Acting Assistant Commissioner Mike Keating said his officers were horrified at the risks people were taking.

"We've seen very high speeds recorded by police officers over the (Easter holiday safety) count period," he said.

"We've seen a number of very high drink-driving detections ... some well over 0.2%.

"We've seen people not wearing their seatbelts, we've seen people distracted by their mobile phones and other devices and we've seen people driving fatigued.

"Each one of those decisions is avoidable by the person who made that decision and tragically we've seen those decisions result in deaths on our roads."

The state's road toll stands at eight deaths.

Southern Region road statistics

  • Persons injured: 26
  •  RBTs: 11,353
  • Drink driving: 68
  • Speed non-camera: 775
  • Speed camera: 1700
  • Seatbelts: 26
  • Mobile phones: 29
  • Other offences: 383


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