Car caught driving in wrong direction on EastLink for 16km

VIDEO

EastLink has a network of more than 200 CCTV cameras, all monitored from the 24/7 EastLink control room. EastLink control room operators work in shifts, with at least two operators rostered on duty at all times.

At around 1:35am on the night of Monday 11 June, the EastLink control room detected a car travelling in the wrong direction on EastLink.

This is extremely dangerous driving behaviour - had there been a collision with another vehicle, the closing speed of up to 200km/h would have resulted in a devastating impact.

The car travelled northbound on EastLink’s southbound carriageway, from Police Rd all the way to, and through, EastLink’s Mullum Mullum tunnel. That’s a total distance of 16 kilometres on the wrong side of the freeway.

Throughout the incident the EastLink control room followed the car using our CCTV cameras. The control room also dispatched an EastLink incident response vehicle to follow the car at a safe and discreet distance.

The EastLink control room deployed the boom gates at the Mullum Mullum tunnel to stop the car proceeding on to the Eastern Fwy, protecting on-coming vehicles.

The car stopped temporarily at the boom gates. It then performed a U-turn and travelled southbound (now using the correct southbound carriageway) to exit at Ferntree Gully Road.

The EastLink control room was in real time communications with Victoria Police to coordinate a response.

Shortly after the car departed from EastLink, Police were in position to locate and apprehend the offender. Police allege that the driver was breath-tested for alcohol with the 0.178 result far exceeding the 0.05 limit.