Authorities have lashed a New South Wales woman for speeding through a Victorian border checkpoint at night, turning her lights off and evading police for hours until road spikes were used to stop her car.
Victoria Health Minister Martin Foley condemned the 57-year-old, from NSW’s Central Coast, for endangering the lives of police.
People from the Central Coast and Greater Sydney are banned from entering Victoria after a COID-19 cluster emerged on the city’s northern beaches.
A pursuit was called off and an off-duty police officer spotted her near Nhill in western Victoria later in the afternoon.
A tyre deflation device was used to stop her.
“The woman was arrested without incident and will be assessed and interviewed at a later date by detectives for offences including conduct endangering life, failing to stop on police direction and contravening chief health officer directions,” police said.
Police said the woman had been refused entry to Victoria before the East Gippsland incident.
“I was extraordinarily upset ... anyone who is refused entry from NSW, particularly from the red zones, is refused entry on public health grounds,” Foley said.
“To then come back at 3 a.m. and drive at speed through a police checkpoint and then put the lights off so as to avoid detection, is a degree of poor behaviour that I’m sure every Victorian would condemn.
“I condemn anyone who drives through and breaches those important border checkpoints because they are there to keep us safe.
“To endanger police members in doing so is a level of poor behaviour that I think every Victorian condemns.”
