Smart move targets hoons

By Dion Teasdale
HEALESVILLE Police Station will be home to a special highway patrol vehicle which aims to reduce a raft of anti-social driving practices in and around the town.
The vehicle, a Special Mobile Anti Road Toll (SMART) car, will target drink driving, speeding and misbehaving drivers in Healesville and Yarra Glen.
Acting Sargeant Ron Veldman from Yarra Ranges Traffic Management Unit (TMU) said the SMART car would be in Healesville at various intervals over the coming months.
“The vehicle, a bright yellow marked up high patrol car, arrived at the station on Sunday, 15 January and will be based in Healesville a week at a time for the next few months,” he said.
Acting Sgt Veldman said the vehicle, which is usually based at the TMU headquarters in Mt Evelyn, was one of 20 SMART cars used by Victoria Police across the state.
“The vehicle comes with two officers who will be stationed at Healesville and who will have full breath testing facilities with them when the car is there,” he said.
“The officers will be concentrating on irresponsible drivers and acting on information that has already been received regarding local misbehaving drivers.”
Acting Sgt Veldman said this would be the second time the SMART car had been located at Healesville.
“The SMART car was based at Healesville over a similar period of time last year,” he said.
“It represents an ongoing commitment to making response times quicker and keeping a highly visible police presence in the area.”
He said the TMU had received an increased number of reports of anti-social driving in and around Healesville since a public meeting was held in November last year to address driver behaviour.
“We’ve had quite a lot of phone calls and reports coming through police emergency 000 about several drivers.
“We encourage community members to keep calling and making reports,” he said.
“The best way to report a misbehaving driver is to call 000.
“Misbehaving drivers should note that we will be prosecuting people on information given to us by the community.”