Canobolas Local Area Command (LAC) officers suspended the man’s licence immediately after he was clocked at 164km/h at 11.20pm on New Year’s Day. 

The other two drivers were caught in the Chifley Local Area Command and had their number plates confiscated. 

Acting Senior Sergeant of the Chifley and Canobolas LAC cluster Peter Foran said there was no excuse for the “idiotic behaviour”.

“They’re asking to kill themselves or kill someone else,” he said. 

Since the police traffic operation, Safe Arrival, started on December 19, 9000 random breath tests were done in the Canobolas Local Area Command and officers charged 12 people with drink-driving.

That is double the number for Bathurst and Dubbo where there were 9200 breath tests done in Bathurst and 6200 done in Dubbo. 

Sergeant Foran said he had no idea why Orange drivers continued to drink and drive.

“Across the western region the figures for the last two days have been horrifying,” he said. 

“There were something like seven or eight on New Year’s Eve and nine on [New Year’s Day].

“People know it’s double demerits, people know we are going to be out targeting drink-driving yet they still do it, makes you think why?”

In the Canobolas command 209 people were booked for speeding and 137 were given tickets for a range of other offences. 

Chifley had 219 speeding offences and 218 tickets handed out for other offences and Orana had 161 drivers fined for speeding with 181 fined for other offences. 

However, Sergeant Foran said by and large people were doing the right thing on the roads.

In the western region, which covers two thirds of the state, there were 22 fewer fatalities than the average of the previous three years.

“That’s probably proof in the pudding that the traffic and highway patrol procedures are working. People expect to see us now,” he said. 

Double demerits are in force until midnight Sunday, but Sergeant Foran says police will continue to target traffic offences until the “kids are safely back at school” at the end of January.

He also said the figures quoted in this story were subject to change given officers were expected to be on the roads and data may not have been updated. 

nicole.kuter@fiarfaxmedia.com.au