POLICE handed out more than 700 fines and infringement notices to Hunter motorists during a five-day road blitz called Operation Australia Day.
Traffic and Highway Patrol officers were out in force across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley focusing on drink and drug driving, as well as speeding and seat belt offences.
Overall 430 infringement notices were handed out for general driving offences. A further 262 people were caught speeding, 16 people were fined for mobile phone use and six people for seat belt offences.
There were 19 local drink driving offences, which made up a large portion of the 105 people detected over the legal alcohol limit across the Northern Region.
There were also 16 positive random drug tests recorded.
"It is not good enough," Newcastle-Hunter highway patrol Inspector Mick Buko said.
"While the general road behaviour was really pleasing to see, 19 people caught drink driving is too much."
There were also no serious collisions across the weekend, despite a significant increase in holiday traffic.
"No fatal crashes, which means no family had to answer a knock at the door and that is a good result," he said.
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