Low-level speeding tickets soar

The number of traffic fines issued to low-level speedsters - drivers travelling just over 10km above the limit - has rocketed.

Figures issued to National MP Tony Ryall reveal that in 1999 officers issued just 1.9 per cent of tickets to people driving between 11 and 15km/h above the speed limit.

Last year, that number had jumped to 40.9 per cent of all officer-issued tickets - up from 2312 to 161,919 tickets.

Mr Ryall said the figures revealed that New Zealanders had reduced their speed and police were being forced to crack down on low-level offenders to maintain the $40 million a year generated from fines.

Given the many other calls being made on police, it was time for a rethink on traffic policing policies, he said.

"When you have limited resources, particularly when you have a 111 crisis, we should be suspending some minor traffic work."

Mr Ryall believed the public wanted a debate on the issue. He had been inundated with stories of people driving just above the speed limit on the open road and receiving a ticket despite their belief they were driving perfectly safely.

But police national road safety manager Steve Fitzgerald was unapologetic about the crackdown, saying it had been well-signalled and was working.

The Government had announced that police would adopt a formal 10km/h tolerance policy in June 2000, he said.

"We really put the public on notice that police were really going to start targeting people who did more than 10km above the limit."

Previously, the issuing of tickets was very much at officers' discretion.

Mr Fitzgerald said the new policy had been successful, reducing speeding on the open road from about 20 per cent of drivers to 6 per cent.

"There were no surprises. We told people what we were going to do and what results we would achieve, and we've done it."

Tickets were still sometimes issued to people travelling below the 10km/h tolerance if their speed was considered dangerous, but typically those people would be stopped and spoken to.

Mr Fitzgerald said the public should not complain as the more intensive ticketing meant most speedsters had reduced their speed, meaning they incurred lower fines.

"People who once might have been 25km/h above the limit and were paying a couple of hundred bucks are now paying $80.

"So in terms of collecting revenue it's been quite a poor decision. But we have got a safer environment - it's calmer and people actually end up paying less."

Mr Ryall's proposal that police should redivert their resources was "not as easy as that". Twenty-three per cent of police resources were marked for road safety and paid for out of transport sector budgets.

All decisions made about allocation of police resources were for the Government and Commissioner to resolve, said Mr Fitzgerald.

Police Association president Greg O'Connor meanwhile hit out at politicians and their impact on the force in the Police News yesterday.

He said Opposition politicians were trawling through the police environment for negative stories to "fatally wound Police Minister George Hawkins".

"It's a political war and, like in any war, there is collateral damage. In this case it's the police."

Speeding crackdown

Officer-issued speeding tickets for drivers 11-15km/h over limit.

1999 - 2312
2000- 3785
2001 - 30,836
2002 - 76,784
2003 - 139,567
2004 - 161,919