Police also detected one instance of disqualified driving and four cases of people driving unregistered vehicles.

Victoria Police’s annual Queen’s Birthday long-weekend operation ran from Friday, June 8 until Monday, June 11.

Horsham Highway Patrol acting sergeant Heath Martin said drivers were generally well behaved.

“Overall, we’ve been happy with the drivers, especially on Monday considering the wet weather we had, there were no major incidents,” he said.

A 23-year-old Sydney man was caught speeding 164km/h along the Western Highway near Pink Lake, Dimboola during the operation. The man lost his licence for 12 months.

“That was definitely the highest speed we recorded, and there were some other low-level speeding offences between 10km/h and 25km/h over the limit,” he said.

Horsham Police sergeant Mick Salter said drink driving offences had been a “major focus” for Highway Patrol officers.

“On Saturday at about 12.30pm, police intercepted 45-year-old man who was driving erratically on Dooen Road in Horsham,” he said.

“The man was brought to the police station for a breath test which came back over the legal limit of 0.05. He was released but will appear in court at a later date.”

A total of five lives were lost on Victorian roads during Operation Regal, including a 52-year-old man in Stawell on Sunday.

Northern Grampians Highway Patrol sergeant Shaun Allen said the man’s death was a tragedy.

“The weekend was definitely no good after that horrible fatality,” he said.

He said Northern Grampians Highway Patrol officers detected a number of offences across the region.

“Police caught a P-Plater driving more than 140km/h along the Western Highway between Ararat and Beaufort,” he said.

“In Ararat on Friday, a 33-year-old Geelong man tested positive to drugs. Police also found cannabis in his car.

“Then on Sunday in Stawell, a police caught a 25-year-old man driving with drug in his system.”

Sergeant Allen said drug offences were “very common” at the moment.

“If I have a message for people who are thinking about drug driving, it’s that you’re going to get caught because police are testing people all the time,” he said.

“Speed detectors also aren’t just on the major highways, they’re on secondary roads too; people might be surprised about where they find us.”

Across the state, police conducted more than 137,400 preliminary breath tests and 2,051 roadside drugs tests over the long weekend.

They detected a total of 227 drink drivers and 148 drug test offences.

All up, more than 8,500 offences were detected during Operation Regal.