Drink and drug drivers are taking too many chances on south-west roads, police say.
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Constable Bevan Marr, of Warrnambool Highway Patrol, said drivers were getting behind the wheel without realising they were still impaired.
“A lot of people are taking drugs like cannabis and they think that it’s only going to be in their system for a short time but the reality is that it stays in your system for quite a few days,” he said.
"People think that they're OK but they're not."
Police intercepted a drug driver on the Princes Highway on Wednesday morning.
Constable Marr said the unit received reports of a 2006 Holden Astra driving dangerously on the highway about 11.30am.
He said the unit intercepted the vehicle about five kilometres west of Warrnambool. An oral fluid test revealed the driver had cannabis in their system.
Constable Marr said it was one of five motorists this week caught driving with cannabis or methamphetamine in their system.
He said the drivers were all picked up in Warrnambool.
Constable Marr said a drink driver was also caught travelling home from the pub in Cobden on Saturday night.
“The driver blew 0.096 on the PBT (Preliminary Breath Test), but then back at the Camperdown police station, the EBT (Evidential Breath Test) came back at 0.134,” he said.
“That was within a time space of about 20 minutes, so what people don’t realise is that their blood alcohol concentration is going up.
“The driver lives about half a kilometre up the street from the pub and he was leaving to go home and probably thought he was OK, but you can quickly become affected.”
On Thursday, a serial drug driver was disqualified from driving for a further 12 months after she was caught on the roads with ice in her system.
Hari Meichell Potaka, 49, of McKiernan Road, Warrnambool, pleaded guilty in Warrnambool Magistrates court to exceeding the prescribed concentration of drugs.
She was disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Potaka was taken off the roads for four years in July after refusing a drug driving test and then testing positive to ice and cannabis a month later.
On May 13 she was intercepted by police on Balmoral Road in Warrnambool about 4pm. An oral fluid test that was sent for analysis revealed she had ice in her system.
