Police look at new speed cameras

Superintendent Paula Rose. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Police are setting a new trap for speeding drivers who slam on their brakes at the last minute for roadside speed cameras.

Police roading national manager Superintendent Paula Rose confirmed police were investigating setting up point-to-point cameras, which record the time a car takes to travel between two points on the open road.

The system calculates if their average speed is higher than the speed limit, and if so the driver is issued with a fine.

"The benefit would be that they measure distance over time and slow drivers down over longer distances, which would be a good deterrent," Rose said.

An example is the 60km stretch of State Highway One between Turangi and Waiouru, traversing the Desert Rd.

Speed cameras would record the licence plate of a car travelling south from Turangi and snap it again when it reached Waiouru.

If it completed the journey in less than 36 minutes the driver could be fined for breaking the 100km/h speed limit.

Rose said: "It's a type of vehicle surveillance technology that is emerging world-wide.

"We look at new technology all the time and would have to trial it to show that the devices were up to the required standard and accurate."

She said speed was the biggest killer on the roads.

"The faster you go the bigger the mess. Speed or going too fast for the conditions is a factor in 30 per cent of all fatal crashes.

"So if you take away speed that would be much more people coming home for Christmas."

She said 367 people were killed on New Zealand roads so far this year.

At the same time last year, 376 people had died on the road, following on from an all time low of 347 in 2008.

Figures from the New Zealand Transport Agency show 140 people died on state highways; 24 on SH1N, 18 on SH1S, 15 on SH2, 14 on SH3 and eight on SH6.

Out of 55 fixed speed cameras in New Zealand, seven are on State Highways and 10 are on roads which had fatal crashes this year.

Rose said police also had 43 mobile cameras which they set up randomly at hundreds of road side spots.

The top earning fixed camera was on State Highway 1 at Sanson, where more than 9800 tickets were issued in the first nine months of the year.

The next top three locations for tickets issued were mobile sites in Auckland - in Otahuhu, Birkenhead and Henderson - each responsible for about 5000 tickets. Otahuhu had one fatal crash.

Another 4000 tickets were issued by a camera on State Highway 5 at Otonga in Rotorua, which had three fatalities.