Police check up on 3.4m drivers

"You may not have seen us but we saw you."

WA Police monitored nearly 3.4 million vehicles during Operation Crossroad over the Christmas and New Year period.

Eight people died in road crashes over the annual police campaign from December 20 to January 5.

Police today released statistics relating to the campaign during which 3,382,736 vehicles were monitored.

Police impounded 405 vehicles and 389 drink driving charges were laid from the 67,271 breath tests conducted. One driver recorded an alcohol level of 0.189.

Of the 342 drug tests conducted, 53 people tested positive.

Police uncovered 988 drivers on the road without a licence.

Speedsters were out in their thousands, with 4935 speeding offences and 13,378 speeding - camera offences. A further 2323 charges were laid for other traffic infringements.

There were 744 restraint offences.

389 people were charged with drink driving offences and there were 53 positive drug tests. File picture: The Kalgoorlie Miner

Acting Assistant Commissioner Alf Fordham of Traffic and Emergency Response said: "You may not have seen us but we saw you. Effectively, every licensed driver in the State was checked more than more than twice during the operation."

“Feedback from the Frontline officers was tremendously positive, with most people getting the road safety message."

Despite the 90,928 offences presenting a picture of lawlessness on our roads over the festive season, police report that the the vast majority of the millions of drivers monitored were on the straight and narrow and stayed within the law.

This summer, police had a focus on people texting while driving.

Officers on unmarked motorcycles were used to catch people using their phones while driving.

Those figures will be released at the end of the month, but Commander Fordham said the number of people putting their phone in their lap to send text messages was “surprisingly high”.

“It is dangerous stuff and these unmarked motorbikes are proving to be a very valuable tool for us to catch them, bring the bad habit to their attention and prosecute them for it,” he told Fairfax radio.

Those caught using their phone while driving will lose three points and be fined $250.

In WA, it is also illegal to text while stationary at traffic lights.