Police 'encouraged' by holiday driving

Road Safe Hawke's Bay volunteer Nicole Anderson hands out refreshments to Lynette Pereniko and Mohi Peti, travelling from Wairoa to Wanganui.

With the end of Labour Weekend in sight, police yesterday afternoon said they were generally pleased with the behaviour of drivers during the break.

Eastern District road policing manager Matt Broderick said in Hawke's Bay there was "relatively good compliance and no incidents ... yet".

At the beginning of the holiday period police issued a warning anyone travelling more than 4km/h over the speed limit should expect a ticket and Mr Broderick said the majority of motorists were compliant.

Extended licensing hours for the Rugby World Cup had not "increased business" for police.
"People are generally being sensible about it," he said.

Fatigue stops, held in conjunction with RoadSafe Hawke's Bay were proving popular.
"We have had really good responses, and in particular from overseas drivers on State Highway 5 at Te Pohue," he said.

"Feedback from a number of overseas visitors was, 'You would never get this anywhere else'.
"They were from The Netherlands, Germany and even Ukraine - they were blown away by it.

"There has been very good feedback, it makes you feel good to be out there." He said, throughout the region, people stopped for breath testing had a good attitude.

"They appreciated why we were there, appreciated what we were doing and we didn't get any moaning or whingeing that it slowed them down or inconvenienced them.

"It's encouraging."