St Christopher adopted as ‘business as usual’

The ten-week operation rolled out in November last year to respond to a worrying spike in Eastern District’s road toll has been so successful it’s now been adopted as ‘business as usual’.

“Operation St Christopher was put into place after ten people died in road crashes during October, adding to the already high death toll for the district last year,” says Eastern Road Policing Manager Inspector John Fairley.

The operation focused on education and proactive enforcement around behaviours known to contribute to road deaths – speeding, drink-driving, and not wearing safety belts.
During the operation there were only three road deaths, although John is quick to point out that it is difficult to attribute this entirely to Saint Christopher.

“However, we made 20,000 stops and detected 1,145 offences which is a significant achievement. And the public were right behind us – I had a number of phone calls from people supporting the highly visible operation.”

Operation Saint Christopher resumed on 20 February as ‘business as usual’.

Operation Saint Christopher:

• Ran for 10 weeks
• Deployed 484 staff
• Stopped 20,000 vehicles
• Detected 1,415 offences
• Arrested 17 offenders
• Impounded 24 vehicles
• Suspended 19 drivers’ licences