A female driver with two children in her car has been issued with a speeding infringement after being caught driving at 123kmh on an icy road in the State’s north-west.

Inspector Adrian Shadbolt, of Western District Road and Public Order Services, said that it was disappointing some motorists continued to ignore road weather warnings despite the risk to their safety.

Early yesterday morning, Western District Road and Public Order Services police were performing a targeted speed reduction operation at the location of a recent serious motor vehicle crash on Ridgley Highway due to black ice on the road, which has a speed limit of 100kph.

“Despite numerous and ongoing warnings from police, coupled with road weather alerts from the weather bureau relating to road conditions and black ice, RPOS detected a female motorist with her 2 children in the car with her travelling at 123kmh. The road was subject to frost and ice at the time and the air temperature was -4 degrees,” Inspector Shadbolt said.

“Whilst the motorist will receive an infringement notice for speeding as a result of the detection with a penalty of 3 points and a monetary fine, in this circumstance, the penalty for speeding could have been much higher.

“The apparent lack of driver consideration of all the factors in this incident including weather and road conditions, speed and precious cargo in the vehicle is very concerning and could have ended tragically, not only for the detected driver and passengers in this instance, but also other road users.

“Road weather alerts, and driving to the conditions warnings are not given lightly. If you think it won’t happen to you, think again. We still have a few more weeks of winter and are likely to continue with frosty mornings into spring, please take heed of warnings and alerts, reduce speed and drive to the conditions.”