Mount Isa Police have commenced an operation aimed at targeting speeding offences on the Barkly Highway.
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It comes after a string of fatalities and speeding offences with the last straw on January 30 when a motorist was intercepted between Mount Isa and Cloncurry travelling at 152km/h in a 100km/h speed zone.
The motorist was issued a $1245 Infringement Notice, 8 demerit points and will face a 6 month licence suspension.
The new operation will see a high visibility police presence on the Barkly Highway while providing a safe road environment for all road users and police will use mobile and static speed enforcement devices to ensure speed compliance.
The winding road has often appeared on lists of the most dangerous roads in Australia and throughout the year 2020, police issued 520 Traffic Infringement Notices to speeding motorists on the Barkly Highway.
There were also nine fatal crashes with ten lives lost within the Mount Isa District.
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Of those crashes, five occurred on the Barkly Highway with a further eight injury crashes occurring on the same section of road during this period with police calling for public assistance with the most recent fatal incident in December.
Police said speeding was a major factor in road crash fatalities and hospitalisation and research has shown speeding 10km/h over the speed limit in rural areas is sufficient to double the risk of a crash.
"Less than one third of the Australian population live in remote areas, yet two thirds of fatal crashes occur on rural and remote roads," Mount Isa Police said.
"Throughout this operation police will be adopting an enforcement, engagement and education strategy."
Each driver intercepted speeding will be provided with a StreetSmarts speeding fact sheet to encourage and influence a behavioural change on their attitude towards speeding.
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
