Riders in the Brisbane hinterland may have felt a little victimised last Sunday after a police blitz.
Police from the Indooroopilly Road Policing Unit (IRPU) and Transport Department inspectors were out in force pulling over motorists for breath test and machinery inspections on their vehicles in what is being called “Operation Stringy Bark”.
One rider said he was pulled over three times in the one day; once in Dayboro and twice on Mt. Glorious.
“It’s a bit extreme,” he said.
“There were heaps of cops at both locations. Every bike was pulled over, also breath tested, although I didn’t see a single car get harassed.”
Police conducted 839 RBTs, detected one drink driver and issued 46 Traffic Infringement Notices (TINs), including 17 notices for defective motorcycles.
Inspectors checked tyres, horns, indicators and rego stickers – even though it coincided with the news reports of that day that the Queensland Government is planning to drop rego stickers next year.
Six tickets were issued for riders without a rego label, 24 motorists were issued with TINs, four were pinged for failure to keep left of the centre line, two were unaccompanied learners, three had no number plate, two were caught speeding and there was one case each of failure to display L and P plates, failure to notify of a change of address, a limb protruding from a car and one not wearing a seat belt.
Our “victimised” rider reports that “they weren’t checking exhaust noise or rear mudguards at 45 degrees which was strange because there were cops as well as the Main Roads Vehicle inspection utes at both sites.
“They’ll probably do that next weekend if they haven’t meet their quotas,” he cynically added.
An official response from police media says: “This operation is part of an ongoing operation for the Mount Glorious and Mount Nebo area by officers from the IRPU focusing on all road users. The IRPU conduct patrols of this area daily with increased presence on weekends. Operations with other authorities will continue with static interception sites established periodically targeting all vehicles.”
The media response says the area carries a “high volume of vehicles including motorcycles” on weekends.
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