Over the course of the five-day long weekend, highway patrols and service vehicles identified and issued 13 instances of unrestrained people within vehicles.

Cootamundra police Sergeant Jim Prentice said he found the number of infringements “disturbing”.

“It’s really quite disturbing to have 13 unrestrained people within vehicles over the five days,” he said.

“In these days, we shouldn’t be having any unrestrained people, not with the technology and alarm systems in modern cars.”

Sergeant Prentice also expressed concern over the combination of unrestrained infringements and the 126 speeding infringements issued over the Easter break.

However, the sergeant took special care to praise the efforts of the Easter Ball organisers for ensuring event-goers were safely heading out onto the roads.

“From the highway patrol and myself, I’d like to thank the organisers of the Easter Ball for putting the message out there that drink-driving won’t be tolerated, especially in the Cootamundra area.

“It was good to see that we didn’t have any positive detections coming out of the ball.

“It was a substantial crowd too, so hats off to the organisers for their positive attitude and we’ll welcome them back bigger and better next year.”

Sergeant Prentice also took the opportunity to remind drivers about the 50km/h unmarked speed limit for developed areas and advised commuters of the upcoming Operation Go Slow running over the Anzac Day long weekend. 

“We’d like to issue a reminder about the 50km/h limit within developed areas and caution people not to accelerate through these zones prior to reaching the highway,” he said. “Now leading into Operation Go Slow, double demerit points apply (from this Friday until midnight Tuesday) and we want to remind local drivers that we will be out in force.”