Motorists caught drink-driving twice within a matter of hours, a driver using a mobile phone at the wheel with three unrestrained children in the car and a burnout that nearly resulted in a collision with pedestrians - those are a few examples of the "stupid, idiotic behaviour" police have faced in the Hunter and Central Coast over the Easter long-weekend, one of the region's top highway patrol officers says.
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Operation Tortoise wrapped up at midnight on Tuesday, but police will back-up for another double-demerit crack-down, which began this morning for the Anzac Day period.
During the Easter long-weekend, police conducted 15,690 random breath tests in the Hunter, laying 37 drink-driving charges.
Officers caught 405 people speeding, 21 using mobile phones while driving and 16 not wearing seatbelts.
On the Central Coast, police conducted 8451 breath tests, charged 24 with drink-driving and caught 295 people speeding.
Among the notable incidents, a man was arrested in the Coalfields, lost 17 demerit points and was fined $2300 for a range of offences.
A p-plater on the Central Coast nearly hit a group of pedestrians in a burnout gone wrong in a busy area.
A woman lost 28 demerit points when police stopped her on the Pacific Motorway at Ourimbah for using a mobile phone - officers also found three unrestrained children in the car.
There were also two cases of motorists being caught drink-driving, only to be stopped at the wheel again within hours.
Chief Inspector Amanda Calder, the NSW Highway Patrol traffic technician for northern NSW, said police were pleased there were no fatalities on the region's roads during the Easter break, but she said there remained too many instances of "stupid, idiotic behaviour".
"There are still people willing to take the risk and are not listening to what we are saying," she said.
"I don't think people realise the risks and the responsibility it takes to drive a motor vehicle. It's not a toy, it's a powerful machine and when it's not driven properly that's when we're seeing people die on our roads."
Chief Inspector Calder said the state's road toll for 2019 stood at 125 - five more than the same period last year.
She said incidents in the northern region, which encompassed the Hunter and stretched from the Central Coast to the Tweed, made up about a third of these deaths.
"These crashes are occurring because people are driving too fast, people aren't driving to the conditions of the road, people are intoxicated or drug affected or they're not taking adequate breaks," she said.
Double demerit penalties will apply across the state until Sunday night.
