KEY POINTS:
The Northland Regional Council is considering new bylaws to crack down on dangerous driving along its coastal beaches where a 13-year-old girl was killed this week by a teenager's motorbike.
The council's coastal monitoring team leader, Bruce Howse, said there was increasing concern about beaches where vehicles were allowed.
Discussions had been held between the council, police, district councils and Department of Conservation who share jurisdictions in coastal areas.
Ripiro Beach, where Daisy Fernandez was killed on New Year's Eve, was among "hot spots" the council has been targeting with a safety education campaign for the past two summers.
Others included Ruakaka Beach in Bream Bay, Tokerau Beach north of Doubtless Bay, and at Ahipara on the west coast in the Far North.
Ronnie Antonio, chairman of the Glinks Gully camp committee, said the accident happened about 50m within the kilometre-long restricted speed zone in front of the settlement.
Mr Antonio had seen the teenager drive past before the accident and said he was going "hard out and full revs".
He said problems with driver behaviour on the beach were increasing, and the local community wanted to work more closely with the police.
Mr Howse said complaints included drivers travelling too fast and too close to other beach users such as sunbathers and walkers.
A Muriwai resident who contacted the Herald yesterday said problems like those at Ripiro Beach were escalating there.
Hundreds of illegal motocross, quad bikes and custom cars arrived every weekend are were driven through the forest and on the beach.
"In spite of the huge increase of accidents ... nothing is being done to prevent offenders riding illegally in these areas," the resident said.
The Waitakere City Council's road safety co-ordinator, Kitch Cuthbert, said the public needed to intervene.
"We're talking about public safety. Hundreds of good people stand idly by. It's time we woke up - let's not wait for more deaths."
Land Transport NZ spokesman Andy Knackstedt, said beaches where vehicles were allowed were usually designated as legal roads, "not to encourage their use by vehicles but to ensure drivers are subject to the rules they normally would be for road safety and consideration of others".
An Australian tourist on Ripiro Beach this week told the Herald she was amazed to see young people riding on car bonnets and sitting in the back of utes. "You wouldn't get away with that back home."
'I thought i had hit a log'
The teenager whose motorbike struck two girls on a Northland beach, leaving one dead and another seriously injured, says he was riding without lights and thought he had hit a log.
The boy, aged 15, told the Herald his unregistered motocross bike had no headlight and he was not looking straight ahead when the accident happened at Glinks Gully, 17km southwest of Dargaville.
"I looked up to the sand dunes and thought I hit a log. I fell off," he said.
When asked if he blamed himself for the accident, he said: "Yes and no - I ran her over."
The boy - whose mother insisted should not be named - said he didn't know how fast he'd been travelling when he hit 13-year-old Daisy Fernandez.
He admitted that one angry beach-goer had tried to pull him off his machine and another warned him to slow down before the crash.
The boy said he went to Ripiro Beach about 8.30pm.
He drove his bike for five minutes along the road to get to the beach which he knew was illegal because it wasn't registered for road use.
At about 9.30pm he was heading home when he hit Daisy and her friend Claudia, who was seriously injured.
He denied he was in a 30km/h restricted speed zone section of the beach which is a designated highway.
He acknowledge he had been told to slow down earlier that evening, but denied speeding.
"One dude told me to slow down. I said 'yeah, okay' and then took off ... then another dude grabbed my backpack and just about pulled me off my bike."
He denied he'd been showing off and had sprayed bystanders with stones.
The teenager said he had been riding since he was about 10.
Detective Inspector Mike Pannett, of Northland Police, said the case had been referred to the Youth Court prosecution section.
