Almost 100 vehicles were photographed straddling the centre line - some completely within the wrong lane - at a specific corner within the gorge during a two-day operation last month.
The owners of those 89 vehicles, and any others caught on the wrong side of the road, would be fined $150, Senior Constable Graeme Buttar said.
"There's been a number of serious crashes and at least three fatals in the Kawarau Gorge as a result of drivers cutting corners," he said.
On one day during last Easter Snr Const Buttar photographed 180 vehicles outside lane boundaries, which equated to about 14% of all traffic through the gorge at the time.
Thousands of vehicles were driven through the gorge daily, and police would continue to photograph motorists on certain corners to deter dangerous driving, he said.
A blind corner frequently cut by motorists was near the Roaring Meg power station.
"It is an ongoing operation to try and stamp out this bad driving practice.
"You can guarantee if people cut the corner in one place, they'll do it every chance they get.
"It's not tourists.
"People complain about slow vehicles through the gorge because tourists think advisory speed limit signs are compulsory, but at least they are driving to the conditions."
Snr Const Buttar, who is the officer in charge of highway patrol throughout the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes districts, said speed was behind people cutting corners.
Many ignored advisory speed limits, thought the opposite lane was clear, and cut corners to maintain speed, he said.
"The ones cutting corners are pushing 85kmh-90kmh around corners where the advisory speed limit is 55kmh, and that speed is carried through into other corners.
"They think they can see the way is clear so they cut the corner and after a while it becomes second nature.
"It's a habitual thing."
Incidents of motorists driving across the centre line were particularly high when work was being carried out at Nevis Bluff, as at present, Snr Const Buttar said.
The most recent work to remove loose rock from the bluff was expected to delay motorists until the middle of the month.
"People are racing through the gorge to get into the queue for going through the Nevis, or suddenly they've been held up so they're racing back and forth to make up for lost time," he said.
Although head-on crashes on the road had been a result of motorists cutting corners, the more likely outcome was accidents caused by drivers over-correcting when surprised by oncoming vehicles.
"They either lose control of the vehicle because they're going too fast around the corners they cut, or they cut a corner and suddenly see a vehicle coming towards them, swerve back into their lane, and lose control doing so," Snr Const Buttar said.
