Safer February

Police are reminding drivers of their lowered speed tolerance of 4km/hr this Waitangi Weekend and will keep the programme in place for the entire month of February. Police will take action against any driver detected driving at more than 4km/h over the permanent posted speed limit.

The lowered tolerance was introduced at Queen's Birthday 2010 after a disastrous Easter when 12 people died on the roads and Police now implement the lowered tolerance for all holiday periods.

"Lowering the tolerance has made a real difference to the number of deaths on the roads over the holiday periods", said Acting Superintendent Rob Morgan, National Manager Road Policing, "but we have identified February as a high-risk month in terms of road safety and the road toll.

We want to take steps to influence behaviour over this period by focussing on those factors considered most influential during the last holiday period, namely alcohol and speed".

Provisional Police analysis of crash causes by month indicates that February has the third highest proportion of crashes in which speed (including too fast for conditions) is a contributing factor.

Year round, excluding February, 21% of fatal/serious crashes have speed as a contributing factor. This increases to 22% of crashes during February.

Holiday periods that have had the lowered speed tolerance, excluding the Christmas/New Years period, have had 46% less crashes (for all crash types) than 2009 holiday periods that did not have the lowered speed tolerance. Crashes with speed as a contributing factor decreased by 27% for the same period.

"We are seeing that the holiday periods that have the lower speed tolerance have had less crashes and a smaller percentage of drivers exceeding 100km/hr," said (Acting) Superintendent Morgan.

"So we are confident that it is reasonable to conclude that the lower speed tolerance has had a positive impact on driver behaviour and in lowered overall crash risk."

Police will be using all resources available to enforce the lowered tolerance during February, including fixed and mobile speed cameras which will be deployed to risk times and locations.

"We want to make sure that every journey is a safe journey for everyone. We will be working with our road safety partners; NZTA, MoT, ACC and AA to make that happen, he said.

"We can make a real difference with this initiative and end this summer on a positive note for all road users."

For statistical information:

http://www.transport.govt.nz/research/Pages/default.aspx