Throughout the 24-day holiday blitz, Ballarat police wrote up 243 speeding tickets, found 56 people disobeying signage, saw 37 unlicensed drivers, 12 disqualified drivers and were forced to impound seven cars.

Inspector Trevor Cornwill said too many drivers were returning positive drugs readings, with figures now twice as high as drink driving.

“It’s definitely a concern,” Inspector Cornwill said. “Every police vehicle is a preliminary breath test vehicle, we do more target testing for drug-driving and that is increasing all the time.

“People are still not getting the message that if you are on drugs one day, you’re not fine the next. We’re not testing for a level, we are testing to see whether they are in your system or not.

“We see that at music festivals, people believe a drug in a small amount is fine – it’s not. This is all about us reducing harm on roads and any drug, if it gives you a high or a low is impairing your driving.”​

Unfortunately the region was not able to reach its goal of zero fatalities with a 51-year-old Scarsdale man losing his life on New Year’s Eve, one of 12 fatalities across the state.

Statewide, the figure is even more drastic with more than 33,000 motorists caught offending on the road.

Road Policing Command Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said the high number of people engaging in acts that posed a risk to themselves and others was concerning with police on average tracking one offence every minute.

“We know that speed is a major factor in about one third of fatal collisions, and we know that speed increases the chances of a collision and the severity of the outcome.

“Yet over the 24 days of Roadwise, we detected 12,050 people speeding, thereby placing themselves and others on the roads in danger. 

“There were also large numbers of people engaging in behaviour that could cost lives or cause serious injuries, such as driving after drinking or using drugs, having their eyes on their phones when they should be on the roads, not wearing seatbelts and running red lights or stop signs.”

“Yet over the 24 days of Roadwise, we detected 12,050 people speeding, thereby placing themselves and others on the roads in danger.

“There were also large numbers of people engaging in behaviour that could cost lives or cause serious injuries, such as driving after drinking or using drugs, having their eyes on their phones when they should be on the roads, not wearing seatbelts and running red lights or stop signs.”

Operation Roadwise ran from 12,01am on December 14  to 11.59pm on January 6.

The 12 people who died on the road was less than half the 25 who died during the same period 12 months ago.

“These results show that although Victoria had a record low number of lives lost (214 – a reduction of 45 from 2017) on our roads in 2018, we can’t afford to be complacent about road safety,” Assistant Commissioner Leane said.

“We all have a part to play in keeping ourselves and others safe. 

“I encourage everyone who’s using our roads to think carefully about what they can do to keep themselves and others safe.”

Have you signed up to The Courier's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.