Speeding blitz cuts road toll by 20pc

Senior police say the "zero tolerance" blitz on speeding drivers has so far resulted in 20 per cent fewer crashes over the Queen's Birthday long weekend.

While some motorists had been issued with speeding tickets after being clocked at 105kmh or faster, numbers were not as high as police anticipated.

Crashes were down 58 to 213 in the period to 4pm yesterday, compared with the same time last year, with deaths down from nine to just one so far this weekend. Last year's holiday weekend toll was 10.

The weekend's only road death up to 9pm yesterday was a female passenger who appeared to have been thrown from a vehicle that crashed north of Gisborne about 6am. She died at the scene.

With one day of the long weekend to go, the road toll was on track to be one of the lowest since holiday deaths were first recorded in 1956, when one driver was killed over Queen's Birthday Weekend. In 1995, two people were killed. The worst Queen's Birthday Weekend was in 197, when 24 people were killed.

"It's certainly the best for a while ... we had a gruesome, gruesome Easter and last Queen's Birthday was horrible too, so this is really good," national road policing manager Superintendent Paula Rose said.

"[Police] haven't been issuing speed offences because people have been so good, people are choosing to slow down and that was a really big reason we went public with our reduction."

It would be a few weeks before ticket numbers were in, Ms Rose said.

Police may now look at testing the reduced tolerance again at Labour Weekend. "I think it is too early to say [we will introduce it permanently]."

While it was a concern that behaviour would lapse after the weekend, Ms Rose was confident drivers would enjoy the safer and smoother ride when people travelled at similar speeds.

Police were equally targeting "inconsiderate" slow drivers who held up a queue of traffic behind them, causing others to overtake.

While some people would always break speed limits, the campaign was aimed at drivers who "push it", Ms Rose said.

"Sometimes you get away with it and you get away with it and you get away with it, but for those who don't get away with it the cost could be a life."

Counter-claims about safe overtaking and speedometer under-reading were just "distraction arguments", she said.

"If you've got to overtake somebody . . . the question needs to be asked was [it] necessary?"

Not all drivers who exceeded the tolerance were being hit with tickets, and a promise to "take action" included formal warnings, as a matter of police discretion.

The Automobile Association's motoring affairs general manager, Mike Noon, said it was happy with the increased police presence. "If [tickets were] at the end of passing lanes then we're going to have some very unhappy people, but we did have a commitment from police that that wasn't their focus."

There also needed more focus on other crash causes such as inattention and driver fatigue, which were bigger killers, Mr Noon said.

- © Fairfax NZ News