According to Office of State Revenue figures for July 2017-April 2018, with two months still to go, Canobolas Highway Patrol officers have fined 928 motorists travelling in the 10 and under category, compared to 820 for all of 2016-17.

Those motorists have been fined $114,082 compared to $98,535 in 2016-17.

The figures showed that even with a rising road toll motorists continued to flout the law and travel over the speed limit.

Overall 2557 speeding fines have been handed out in the region so far this financial year with fines totalling $621,500.

In 2016-17 there were 2793 fines totalling $702,757.

The speeding problem is even worse in Bathurst where nearly 3900 fines (52 per cent more than in Orange) have been issued in the past 10 months.

Police Western Region Traffic Tactician Inspector Peter McMenamin said police would continue to crack down on speeding regardless of how much over the limit drivers were travelling.

“There is no such thing as safe speeding,” he said.

“Speeding is now [a factor in] 40 per cent of the fatalities. It is a significant issue.”

He said people needed to exercise caution, stay at or below the speed limit and drive to the road conditions.

Inspector McMenamin said the rise in the number of 50 km/h speed zones and 40 km/h school zones was a likely factor in the increase in the number of ‘under-10s’ being caught.

“Ten kilometres a hour over is a significant increase in those low zones,” he said.

The Office of State Revenue figures also showed that 1335 motorists had been booked travelling more than 10 km/h over the limit and have been fined $361,198.

That compared to 1681 booked at the same level in 2016-17 who were fined $451,051.

Two drivers were caught more than 45 km/h over the limit while 27 were caught at more than 30km/h over.