In my experience, almost all serious and fatal crashes I have attended, can be attributed to four common factors - excessive speed, fatigue, inattention/distraction and alcohol/drugs. All of these are completely avoidable and living and driving in the country poses additional risks with the extra distances covered, and the varying road conditions.
Your local Dumbleyung Police will be joining other stations across the state and country in providing an increased road presence, both during and in the lead up to the festive season. The last thing I want to be doing over Christmas, is attending a fatal crash, and I certainly do not want to be knocking on a door in our community to break devastating news to loved ones. To be honest, I have been to enough of these, and would rather not see anymore, ever, any time of the year.
My message to everyone, is to be patient when driving, allow plenty of time for the drive and take regular breaks if driving a long distance. We will be out looking for driver’s doing the wrong thing and putting themselves and other road users at risk. In the interest of keeping everyone safe over the festive season, we will not be showing much leniency.
If you are going away for Christmas, please make sure your house and property are locked and secure. Whilst we don’t have any problems with theft and burglary normally, Christmas is a period where opportunistic thieves will look at houses, where it is obvious the occupants are away.
I encourage you to let us know if your house or property is going to be unoccupied over Christmas, and if you want us to, we are happy to visit your property and check it every now and then, to make sure it is secure and safe. Seeing us out and about in the rural areas will also hopefully act as a deterrent to any prospective thieves.
On behalf of Darryl, myself and our families, we wish you all a bountiful, safe harvest and a very happy festive season.
Alby VAN DEN BERG - | Sergeant 9039 | Officer in Charge – Dumbleyung Police Station | 34-36 Absolon Street, Dumbleyung, WA 6350, PO Box 165 | Tel: (08) 9863 4143 | Fax: (08) 9863 4220 | Email: alby.vandenberg@police.wa.gov.au | Twitter: @DumbleyungPol