Police are joining forces in a bid to battle road trauma on the Hume Highway, with 140 officers to take part in a blitz in Victoria and NSW.
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The police operations will run early next month following a spike in the road toll.
The freeway was the scene of a crash at Chiltern on August 31 last year that claimed four lives.
There were 25 people killed on North East roads last year, and 187 crashes involving serious injuries.
There have been five lives lost in the North East already in 2024, further deaths in the wider Albury region, and officers say it is drivers' responsibility to be safe on the road.
"It's unacceptable," NSW Acting Superintendent Greg Donaldson said in Albury on Wednesday, February 28.
"There's no such thing as accidents on our roads, they're all crashes.
"They've all been caused by somebody who chose to do something wrong, whether that be a mistake they made before they started driving, or a moment of inattention that has led to a minor offence taking place and culminating in a crash.
"When you're driving a motor vehicle you have the ultimate responsibility to ensure that you get to the destination safely, so that you protect yourself, the occupants of your car, family, friends and other road users."
Acting Superintendent Donaldson said 81 lives had been lost on the Hume between Albury and Sydney in the past 10 years.
In 2023 alone, NSW officers seized $60 million in drugs, cash and other illegal items on the highway.
"The Hume Highway carries a great amount of traffic between the two states," he said.
"It's a route that drug couriers use to transport drugs.
"So if you're speeding, carrying drugs in your car, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, we're going to catch you, we're going to take your licence off you."
There have been recent fatal crashes at Wodonga, Freeburgh, Guys Forest, Everton Upper, the Indigo Valley, and Collendina.
Superintendent Joy Arbuthnot said of the five lives lost in the North East in 2024, 60 per cent involved people from the region.
"People have a mentality that 'I can just be a little bit over'," she said.
"A little bit over the speed limit, perhaps not stopping at that sign at a T-intersection.
"That's where we saw the great amount of our road trauma and some really catastrophic results for people.
"So our focus is going to be on, if you are speeding, or haven't got your seatbelt on, you should expect to be caught."
The operations will run from Glenrowan to Sydney between March 5 and March 8.
