Senior Constable Corey Holland, of Warrnambool Highway Patrol, said the unit had nabbed seven speeding drivers in 24-hours on Wednesday, including one motorist travelling at 142km/h in Ecklin South. 

He said the unit had also caught 12 drug affected drivers in seven days. 

Between August 23 and 30, the unit detected six people driving with cannabis in their system; one with methamphetamine; two with a combination of cannabis and methamphetamine; two drivers who refused a drug test and one with a mix of alcohol and cannabis. 

Senior Constable Holland said the illegal behaviour was occurring at all times of the day.  

“It’s very, very disappointing,” he said. 

“We put an article in The Standard earlier this month to make more people aware of the number of drug drivers on the roads and we hoped that it would prevent this sort of behaviour.” 

Warrnambool police recorded 56 positive drug tests and 11 drink driving offences in the Warrnambool police service area between July 1 and August 10.

Senior Constable Holland said the message clearly wasn’t getting through. 

“People need to be aware that if they have drugs in their system and they are intercepted by police that it is an offence,” he said. 

Meanwhile, a Holden commodore that was detected at 142km/h in Ecklin South was one of seven speeding drivers in one day. 

The vehicle was intercepted by police on the Cobden-Warrnambool Road at 9.10am on Wednesday. 

Senior Constable Holland said that if an accident had occurred at that speed, it would have been catastrophic. 

“On that section of road there could be wildlife and other motorists, and if anything had happened unexpectedly at that speed, it would have been a terrible result,” he said. 

The driver was issued with a $685 penalty notice, six demerit points and a six month suspended licence. 

A second vehicle was clocked at 120km/hr on the same stretch of road later that day. 

Senior Constable Holland said police also nabbed drivers at 116km/hr and 117km/hr on the Princes Highway between Panmure and Allansford; 116km/hr on the Lavers Hill-Cobden Road; and two motorists travelling at 20km/h over the limit in a Terang school zone.

“We were really disappointed to get so many speeds in one day, especially given that a lot of them were higher speeds that exceeded a 100km/hr zoned limit,” he said. 

“We need people to be more aware of their surroundings. Particuliary at school zones, where more often than not there are illuminated, flashing speed zone lights.

“If you are failing to observe those zones you really need to be taking more notice of your environment.” 

The statistics are provisional. 

Anyone with information should call Warrnambool police on 5560 1333 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.