'High-impact side swipe' at Princes Highway road works at Yambuk

Port Fairy police Sergeant David Walkley said the 29-year-old man was lucky there were no fatalities after he committed four of the "fatal five" offences blamed for most road deaths.

"He's speeding, on a cocktail of alcohol and drugs, and likely fatigued and distracted," he said.

"The only thing he did do was wear a seat belt."

Sergeant Walkley said the man was travelling west on the Princes Highway at Yambuk about 7pm on Wednesday, August 16.

The motorist approached the road works at a sinkhole undergoing maintenance, where a light controls traffic as the stretch of highway becomes one lane.

"He has failed to obey the reduced speed limit of 40km/h and has gone straight through the red traffic control signal, colliding with a 51-year-old Warrnambool man travelling east in a Volkswagen SUV," Sergeant Walkley said.

"It was a high-impact side swipe which caused all the airbags to deploy in the Volkswagen, causing minor injuries to the driver."

Sergeant Walkley said police attended the scene and conducted preliminary drug and alcohol tests.

The offending driver blew .174 - more than three times the legal limit - and tested positive to methamphetamine/MDMA.

"I have been left just shaking my head at the stupidity of this driver," Sergeant Walkley said.

"It goes against everything that we are trying to prevent. He's driving on a cocktail of alcohol and drugs, speeding, and disobeying traffic signals. It's lucky that no one was killed.

"If it had been another metre further, it would have been a head-on crash and we would be talking about a serious injury collision, if not a fatal."

Both vehicles were extensively damaged and towed from the scene.

Sergeant Walkley said the Portland man was immediately banned from driving and would be charged with serious driving offences.

He said the man would appear in Warrnambool Magistrates Court at a later date.

Earlier this week The Standard reported the south-west was on track to record its worst road toll in more than a decade.

Sergeant Walkley said it was frustrating drivers weren't heeding the message.

"Just yesterday an article about our horrific road toll appeared and then you have an incident like this happen last night, that is just totally avoidable and could easily have ended in lives being lost," he said.

"We're continuing the fight to drive down road trauma but people like this makes our job much harder."

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