From the Melton City Council& Melton Highway Patrol
In view of safety concerns with the return of school for Term 3, please be assured that Melton City Council in partnership with Victoria Police are addressing road safety surrounding school crossings.
Council’s Community Safety Officers as well as Victoria Police members are actively patrolling school areas during school zone times in keeping the community safe.
Below are links in Melton City Council website and Facebook page as well as Melton Police Eyewatch Page that you are encouraged to include in your newsletter to promote safety around the school, including the principles or Stop, Look, Listen, and Think.
With the return of school for Term 3 Melton and Caroline Springs Police together with the Melton Highway Patrol will be running a weeklong operation targeting driver behaviour in and around school crossings and school zones across the response zone. This operation will also see the activation of Community Safety Officers from Melton City Council.
Police would like to remind all drivers that the bottom line is SAFETY. School zones are areas designated as high risk at certain times of the day and the Crossing Supervisor is there to ensure the roads are safely crossed by all pedestrians and the laws are in place to protect everyone.
Police will be adopting a zero-tolerance approach to any driving or behaviour that puts the safety of others at risk. Some of the infringement notices that can be issued are:
- Fail to stop and remain stationary at children’s crossing
- Fail to stop at the stop line when a hand held stop sign is displayed, or a pedestrian is entering or on the crossing
- Proceed after stopping when the handheld stop sign is still displayed
- Proceed after stopping while a pedestrian is on or entering the crossing
- Pass stopped vehicle at children’s crossing or pedestrian crossing
All of these offences carry a fine of $454 and 3 demerit points.
Other breaches of Road Rules that will also be addressed are parking and stopping illegally. Some examples of the penalties are:
- Drive motor vehicle on a path, nature strip, traffic island or dividing strip – Penalty $182
- Fail to obey traffic direction given by police officer or authorised person – Penalty $363 & 3 demerit points
- Drive unlawfully in a bicycle lane – Penalty $273
- Stopped contrary to a no parking sign – Penalty $36
- Stopped on a nature strip – Penalty $109
Police are looking at this operation from a safety perspective and all pedestrians and road users deserve to get to or from their destination in a safe manner.