Western Bay of Plenty police are crediting personal driver responsibility for a relatively safe holiday period on Bay of Plenty roads over Easter.

Western Bay of Plenty Road Policing Unit Acting Senior Sergeant Mike Owen says there were 19 crashes in the region over Easter, but given the bad weather, he was pleased with that.

'I definitely expected a lot more crashes than that,” says Mike.

'The weather was atrocious, but I must say, the vast majority of motorists seemed to show a more responsible attitude toward their own driving behaviour, with a very small minority letting themselves down.”

One of those was on Easter Sunday, when a motorcyclist was caught doing 150km/h on State Highway 2 in Papamoa.

The 51 year old man said he didn't realise he was going that fast.

A further 16 people were caught exceeding the speed limit by 16km/h or more.

During the Easter period more than 3500 motorists were breath tested in the Western Bay with 21 people caught over the drink-drive limit.

Mike says that while this was five less than Easter last year, it is 21 too many.

'There really isn't any excuse for drinking and driving.

'The publicity around this is very good, and the message is very clear: if you drink and drive, you really are an idiot.

'Police are having a blitz on drink-driving next month so if you are going to drink and drive, expect to get caught.”