Just 48 hours after the 22-kilometre stretch of road between Nambucca and Urunga was opened, local highway patrol clocked the green P-plater travelling at 149kph in the 100kph speed zone near the Ballards Rd interchange.

When police caught up to the driver, he had increased his speed to 165kph. Police said that when the man was stopped, he had his partner and two children were in the car.

He was fined over $3000 and lost his licence for six months.  

“These fines pale into insignificance when you consider the potential injury and death that could have occurred had the vehicle travelling at such a speed been in an accident,” detective inspector Guy Flaherty told the Guardian.

“The new road has been built to save travel time and more importantly save lives and it is disturbing to see such speeds being detected within 48 hours of the road being opened.

“This is an opportunity to obviously increase the safety of the area, it’s a situation where as police we want to drive on the road – we don’t want to stand on it. Because if we’re standing on this road, that means we’re standing around something horrible where someone’s had an accident either through fatigue, speed, alcohol or drugs.”

Inspector Flaherty said people need to respect the enforced speed zones and remember that road works are still being carried out.

“Our officers will be concentrating on this area to ensure that it’s safe for the people who are travelling and that people aren’t using this as a raceway coming through,” he said.

“We have unfortunately had situations in the Kempsey area, and now here, where roads have been open and they’ve been abused with high speeds around the 160-170kph mark recorded.

“Traffic and highway patrol will continue to patrol this road, as well as the old road … we will be out in force to make sure it’s safe.”