WATCH: Sergeant Robert Long of the Victoria Police Heavy Vehicle Unit discusses the operation.

Transcript

00:00Sergeant Robert Long from the Victoria Police Heavy Vehicle Unit.

00:03We have been conducting vehicle compliance checks

00:07in the snow areas for the last two months of the snow season.

00:12And we're here today at Yark

00:14doing another part of our Operation Eastern Snow.

00:18Well, Operation Eastern Snow is an annual event

00:22that we do to enforce the fatigue-regulated heavy vehicles

00:26going to and from the snowfields.

00:29Why we're at Yark today is because this is the main route to Mount Buller,

00:35and we have quite a few fatigue-regulated vehicles, passenger buses,

00:39travelling from Melbourne to the snowfields and return each day.

00:43We've already today had several drivers

00:46falsifying the entries in their work diaries

00:48to drive longer than they were required to.

00:51Both those drivers that were detected today

00:53will be attending court at a later date.

00:55But drivers of heavy vehicles, buses especially,

00:59going to the snowfields, they're not carrying parcels,

01:02they're carrying people, which is a far more important commodity.

01:06So we're much harsher on the bus drivers

01:08to make sure they comply with all the rules,

01:11make sure they're licensed,

01:13make sure their buses are roadworthy

01:15and have the appropriate equipment to travel to the snowfields.

01:19But for normal drivers we've seen over this eastern snow

01:22is vehicles leaving the snowfields covered in snow,

01:26which everyone thinks it looks very nice,

01:28but you go around the first or second corner,

01:31if a chunk of snow falls off into oncoming traffic

01:34or blows off into the other car, may cause an accident.

01:37So we've been handing out fines for actually insecure loads,

01:42meaning the snow still on the roof of the vehicle.

01:45If you're departing from the mountain,

01:47you wipe the excessive snow off your vehicle before proceeding.

01:56Bus drivers the same, they've got to clean their windows,

01:59make sure they're defogged, etc, before proceeding down the mountain.