Speed tolerance reduction will remain temporary

Police say the current speed tolerance reduction applies for the month of February and public holidays only.

"There is no consideration of making this a permanent reduced tolerance," the Acting Assistant Commissioner of Operations, Andy McGregor, said today.

"Overall, we have seen a reduction in the holiday road tolls since the introduction of the reduced tolerance but there is still a long way to go before we can be sure of any long-term results.

"Making the roads safer needs a comprehensive and concerted approach with everyone working together. Safer drivers on safer roads in safer vehicles all of the time and we are working with our road safety partners to achieve this.

"We know that if we can keep speeds down, we can keep crashes down and that is what we are looking for.

"If we can reduce speeds on the roads, we can reduce the number of crashes and the severity of any that may occur."

Police are operating a reduced speed tolerance of 4 kilometres per hour over any permanent posted speed limit for the month of February in order to reinforce to motorists the expectations Police have about continuing to drive down the toll of death and injury on the roads.