Frustrated police working along the Western Freeway on Easter Monday have described catching leadfoot drivers as like "shooting fish in a barrel".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"It was like they pulled one driver over, then straight away they had another one," Ballarat Highway Patrol Acting Sergeant Guinther Borgelt said.
"It was just terrible - especially in those really wet conditions.
"One member said it was like shooting fish in a barrel.
"To hear that on a day and stretch of road with two collisions (between Ballarat and Bacchus Marsh) was just not good at all."
In the Ballarat Police Service Area (which includes Pyrenees) 40 speeding offences were detected during a five-day Easter road blitz, while in Moorabool it was a whopping 63.
That included a driver who lost their licence for three months.
Operation Nexus also saw 52 speeding offences in the Northern Grampians PSA (which includes Ararat), while there were 55 in the Maryborough-based Goldfields PSA.
Statewide, speeding accounted for about one third of all offences over Easter, and of those, 80 per cent were clocked between 10 and 25km/h over the limit.
Almost a quarter of Victoria's speeding offences were also detected on Easter Monday.
"The drivers we are mainly talking about here are mid-range speeding offenders," Acting Sergeant Borgelt said.
"They are generally holidaymakers trying to cut through traffic.
"Please slow down and drive to the conditions. We're coming into Winter."
High numbers of unlicensed drivers and unregistered cars were also detected during the operation.
Ballarat saw 18 unregistered vehicles while Northern Grampians and Central Goldfields saw 16 each.
Police in the Moorabool Shire saw four.
"Unfortunately that doesn't surprise me," Acting Sergeant Borgelt said.
"A lot of motorists just forget, but we still need to give infringement notices.
"Most of the people we see with unregistered vehicles are on three-monthly payments."
Officers in Ballarat also detected seven drivers without a licence. Moorabool recorded five, while the Northern Grampians saw three and Goldfields two.
Have you tried The Courier's app? It can be downloaded here.