South Australia Police detected over 4,500 road safety offences during a statewide road safety operation, Operation Safe Holidays.
The Operation ran from 16 December 2024 to 1 January 2025 with a focus on detecting ‘Five Five’ road safety offences – drink and drug driving, speeding, distraction, incorrect seatbelt use and dangerous driving.
Ten lives were lost and 50 serious injuries occurred during the operation period.
Police caught 322 drink drivers, 252 drug drivers, 2,897 speeding drivers, 112 people not wearing a seatbelt correctly, 928 dangerous road users and 148 distracted drivers. Distraction detections do not include mobile phone detection camera detections.
The highest number of Fatal Five detections in each region were:
- Murray Mallee with 236 speeding detections
- Eyre Western with 11 seatbelt detections
- Northern District with 32 drink driving detections
- Eastern District with 18 distraction detections and 129 dangerous road use detections.
Traffic Services Branch Officer in Charge, Superintendent Shane Johnson said this was a difficult holiday season on South Australian roads and too many drivers chose to take irresponsible risks.
“This year’s Operation Safe Holidays road safety statistics emphasise the reality that drivers who choose to break road safety laws face a high risk of incurring a range of serious consequences,” said Superintendent Johnson.
“Drink driving and speeding were the top two offences this season and both were detected in greater numbers than last year.
“In addition to issuing more than 2,000 expiations, police also issued 415 Immediate Loss of Licence notices and impounded 320 vehicles.
“If you choose to take a dangerous risk on the road, you’re choosing to risk a loss of life and face serious penalties.”
