Police were out in force as part of Operation Roadwise, which ran from December 15 until Sunday.

Horsham Highway Patrol Sergeant Leigh Creasey said overall drivers were well behaved.

He said police detected more than 800 offences across the Horsham and Northern Grampians police service areas.

Across the state, police detected more than 31,000 offences as part of the operation.

In the Horsham police service area, police caught five drink-drivers, 18 drug-drivers and 191 speeding drivers.

There were also 12 unlicensed drivers, two disqualified or suspended drivers, five people not wearing a seatbelt, six mobile phone offences, 14 unregistered vehicles and 11 people disobeying road signs or signals. 

One vehicle had to be impounded.

“Overall, drivers in the region were pretty good, especially compared with the rest of the state,” Sergeant Creasey said.

“The region was way down the list in terms of the number of offences, but we were one of the best in relation to our patrol times.

“It just shows that people are getting the message about behaving themselves on the road.”

Sergeant Creasey said there was one fatality in the region during the operation, after a NSW woman died in a single-vehicle crash at Illawarra, near Stawell, on New Year’s Day.

“That was disappointing – we don’t want to see any fatalities,” he said.

“One was too many.”

Sergeant Creasey said police caught more drug-drivers than drink-drivers, which was an increasing trend.

“In general, we are getting more people for drug-driving now than we do drink-driving,” he said.

Sergeant Creasey said increased penalties for driving offences were deterring people from doing the wrong thing.

“The penalties are getting a lot higher,” he said.

“People can get demerit points, lose their driver’s licence, and if they are caught drink-driving or speeding, there is the possibility that their car can be impounded.”