I AM disappointed to read on local social media that there are people within our community who refer to their local police who are conducting speed detection in school zones as doing no more than raising money for the government.
The staff at Donnybrook Police Station strive to make the community a safer place, and one of our focusses is maintaining safety on our roads. We target our patrols based on complaints from the community, requests from the community and areas of high traffic flow where crashes are prevalent.
Of recent weeks we have stepped up speed detection duties, in and around town including school zones. We have been made aware that some vehicles are not slowing down to 40kph through school zones in the morning between 7.30am and 9am and in the afternoon between 2.30pm and 4pm.
Vehicles travelling in excess of 40kph through school zones are putting youth at risk and it is our goal to ensure motorists do comply with the speed limits to ensure pedestrians are safe. A few weeks ago a vehicle was detected travelling through the school zone on Bentley Street at 87kph. A few minutes later, another motorist was stopped for having young children unrestrained in the vehicle.
A few years back I attended a crash where I did CPR on a two week old baby who had been unrestrained in a vehicle. Speed and the unrestrained infant were key contributors to that child’s death. This is just one story that I have, and it saddens me to think that there are people out there in our community who label Police as “Revenue Raisers” when they are out doing their job trying to prevent these types of horrific incidents in our community.
Donnybrook Police fully support the use of social media within the community to advise each other of the locations where we are conducting speed detection. If it encourages or reminds motorists to slow down and do the right thing, we have achieved our goal.
Thank you to those people in the community (the majority) who value the work we and other emergency services do within the community.
If you would like to consider a career with the WA Police visit the website at www.police.wa.gov.au.
-Trent Langthorn, Acting Sergeant, Officer in Charge, Donnybrook Police Station.
