School buses caught in speeding net

Two school buses have been caught in a police campaign to combat speeding outside school gates.

The buses were clocked travelling at 60km/h within 250m of schools which police have begun staking out with speed cameras and radar patrols.

They are among hundreds of vehicles to have run foul of a national "Speed Kills Kids" campaign, launched at the start of the school year last Tuesday and billed to run through much of the first term.

At least one of the errant drivers was a teacher, who was caught at 57km/h in Tauranga.

Police patrols have been ordered to issue tickets and educational pamphlets to anyone exceeding the speed limit near schools by more than 5km/h from 7.30am to 9am and 3pm to 4.30pm on school days.

This represents a 50 per cent reduction of their normal tolerance of 10km/h above the limit, and follows concern that 34 school-aged pedestrians and cyclists were killed and 2055 injured at those times in the five years to the end of December.

National road policing manager Superintendent Dave Cliff said at the weekend that several hundred infringement notices were issued in the first four days of the campaign, which would continue this morning.

Mr Cliff said the offending school buses were showing mandatory signs warning other drivers they were carrying children, and their defiance of the speed limit was "obviously pretty disappointing".

But he said police patrols were buoyed by a high level of public support for their presence around schools.

"Staff are repeatedly being thanked for being on site by parents and teachers."

School buses are governed by the same speed limits as other vehicles, but it is an offence for other drivers to pass them at more than 20km/h when they are stopped to pick up or drop off children.