February 14, 2020
Truckloads of Quality fun After Olive Pobjoy survived a rare and aggressive form of cancer at age four, Camp Quality helped her be a kid again. Her father Andy remembered her diagnosis of Burkitt’s Lymphoma seven years ago, ahead of a fundraising convoy of 200 trucks and motorbikes coming to Geelong this Sunday. “You don’t leave your kid’s side when that happens. (Olive’s mother) Jess basically lived in the hospital and I crashed anywhere I could in Melbourne,” he said. “You start to realise how vital these charities are when you’re in a tight spot and hit with news like this.” Burkitt’s Lymphoma begins in immune cells and results in a fast-growing tumour that can be fatal if untreated. But after months of treatment following her diagnosis, Olive, now 11, went into remission. The family later went on a camp with the charity that helped Olive be a child again, Andy said. This Sunday, the Camp Quality Geelong Convoy comes to Richie Bros. Auctioneers, Corio, before travelling in a 50km loop and returning for a ‘show and shine’ day. Organisers and participating truck drivers, like Mario Gafiero, hope to raise $80,000. Details: bit.ly/2OeCkYB. Luke Voogt
Mario and Jorden Gafiero with Olive and Andy Pobjoy. (Rebecca Hosking) 204516_01
Drug-driving igures alarm By Luke Voogt Drug-driving ofences on the Surf Coast have more than tripled in the past year, prompting a senior Geelong Highway Patrol oicer to call for more drug-testing kits. Police statistics prepared for the Independent reveal 138 motorists were detected driving under the inluence of illicit drugs in the year to January 31, 2020, compared to 39 in the previous 12 months. Geelong Highway Patrol Acting Senior Sergeant Darren Murphy described the result as “disturbing”.
“We need to increase (testing) to get more of these drivers of our roads,” he said. “We certainly don’t want drug-afected drivers on our roads. If we could test everybody we pull over, that would be fantastic.” Drug-driving ofences in Geelong also increased by about 50 per cent, with police detecting 382 ofences in the year to January 31, 2020, compared to 258 for the previous 12 months. Drugs were a “causation factor” in seven fatal crashes and 60 “serious injury” crashes in the past three years in Geelong and the Surf Coast, according to police.
About ive in every six drivers who tested positive for drugs locally had ice or other methamphetamine in their system, Senior Sergeant Murphy said. He said methamphetamine use can lead to over-conidence, rash decision-making and risk-taking in some drivers. And he warned meth could stay in people’s system longer than other illicit substances. “Someone uses methamphetamine on the weekend, we’re still picking it up in the middle of the week,” he said. “It can certainly impair your thinking in relation to what you’re doing driving down the road.”
Senior Sergeant Murphy attributed a signiicant part of the increase in ofences detected to a “saturation” of testing in Geelong and the Surf Coast. Police igures reveal that many drug-driving detections resulted from police pulling over motorists for other ofences, such as an unregistered car, speeding or mobile phone use. Drivers and motorcyclists with stimulants or THC in their system made up 19 per cent and 10.3 per cent of Victorian road deaths respectively in 2018, according to the Traic Accident Commission.
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