A Molong man alleged to have been speeding 139km/h along the Mitchell Highway has been issued a penalty notice after initially evading officers over the weekend.
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At around 5pm on Friday afternoon, officers attached to Operation Bathurst 2020 were patrolling the Mitchell Highway near Molong when they detected a grey Ford utility travelling almost 40km/h over the 100km/h speed limit on the highway.
Police indicated for the Ford to stop, however it continued on the highway and out of sight of police.
The next morning police patrolling the Molong area located the vehicle at a business in Molong.
The driver, a man aged 30, was issued with a penalty notice for exceeding the speed limit.
The penalty notice in Molong comes as part of Operation Bathurst 2020 - a high visibility operation targeting traffic offences and antisocial behaviour at this year's Bathurst 1000 - which started last Thursday and wrapped up on Sunday night.
Throughout the operation police conducted 140 business inspections, 2110 random breath tests, detected 134 exceed speed limit offences and issued 125 traffic penalty notices.
... if you speed there is a fair chance you're going to get caught.
- Western Region Commander, Assistant Commissioner Geoff McKechnie
Western Region Commander, Assistant Commissioner Geoff McKechnie, praised the efforts of local businesses who complied with currently Public Health Orders and the behaviour of racegoers who displayed very little antisocial behaviour.
"We did a massive push around Bathurst and the venue itself, there was one warning delivered and that warning was quickly rectified so congratulations to all the licensees in Bathurst and the operators of the Supercars licensing events as well - it all went very smoothly and we're very thankful for that," AC McKechnie said.
However, as in previous years, speeding offences remain a concern.
"Traffic was the main focus for us with a lot of traffic moving through the central west and to and from Bathurst," AC McKechnie said.
"We issued 134 Traffic Infringement Notices for speeding offences so there are still a lot of people not getting the message about road safety.
"We're out there every weekend doing the same type of traffic operations across regional NSW so if you speed there is a fair chance you're going to get caught."
Police urge those travelling to be safe and plan your trip across the region,
"The event was obviously very successful in how it ran on TV, but we look forward to next year hopefully getting back to some sense of normality," AC McKechnie said.
Other notable offences out of the operation include a man recording a positive drug test after being caught speeding along the Lachlan Valley Way on Sunday. He was issued a 24-hour licence prohibition, and speed infringement notice.
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