Overwhelmed police ask motorists to put complaints in writing

11.50 am

A young child with a water pistol, hanging out of the rear window of a moving vehicle was a chilling sight.

The unrestrained child was ignored by the driver and continued to use his water pistol on other vehicles in a display which frustrated police say is not uncommon as they try to get the message across about road safety.

In another frightening incident, on Auckland's southern motorway, a man cradled an infant on his chest with one hand as he drove with the other.

Police say they are finding it difficult to deal with the huge number of telephone complaints they are getting about dangerous and stupid behaviour of other motorists.

Drunk drivers are likely to get priority when police get a call because, as far as police are concerned, as long as they are behind the wheel they are a high risk to other motorists.

As the complaints increase, so too are the number of motorists prepared to follow drunk drivers, keeping police updated on cellphones, until a police car can reach the drunk driver.

However, other complaints such as dangerous overtaking, cutting off other motorists, following too closely, or failing to wear seat belts or child restraints, are not likely to receive immediate attention from the police.

They simply do not have the resources to send a car in response to every complaint.

Frustrated police are urging motorists to write in with complaints rather than put in a telephone call.

The police northern communications centre in Auckland, which handles police calls and operations for most of the top half of the North Island, said today it could not handle the increasing number of calls about errant traffic behaviour.

Supervisor Ann Corbett said motorists needed to write to the police with the registration number, time, date and details of a traffic incident within 10 days.

- NZPA

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