KEY POINTS:
Motorists speeding or driving dangerously outside schools will be stung by strong measures to be introduced next week in a bid to save young lives.
The raft of initiatives include:
* 40km/h speed limits for eight Auckland schools, with 10 more to follow from July.
* Reducing the
speed tolerance to just 4km/h above the limit outside all schools nationally.
* Plainclothes traffic wardens at 15 Auckland schools to stop parents doing illegal manoeuvres.
* A bad-driver programme where more than 25 schools fax registration details of cars spotted being parked or driven badly.
* A hard-hitting poster and television advertising campaign, Speed Kills Kids, featuring teachers who have witnessed dangerous driving outside their schools.
The crackdown is aimed at preventing more blood being spilled on the road to school. Between 2001 and 2005, 1524 pedestrians and cyclists aged 5 to 14 were injured on the roads during school terms.
Twenty-four schoolchildren died.
Starting next Wednesday, the police will enforce a 4km/h tolerance within 250m of school and preschool boundaries - a further reduction following last year's slashing of the 10km/h tolerance to 5km/h.
The communications manager for road policing, Lesley Wallis, said officers and speed cameras would enforce the measures.
The restrictions previously applied only to the period before and after school, but will now extend to other times such as sport events and galas.
Those caught driving faster than 54km/h will be ticketed and demerit points may be added for those stopped by police patrols.
"The whole point of this campaign is not giving out tickets, but the need to take care around schools," said Ms Wallis.
In Auckland, 40km/h speed limit zones will be ringed around eight schools this term, with another 10 more to follow from July.
The project is being driven by the Auckland City Council.
Karen Hay, council road safety manager, said 100 tickets were issued at 15 schools under the programme in November and December last year.
Parking behaviour improved significantly when uniformed officers were present but some drivers quickly reverted to illegal and dangerous parking practices afterwards.
Illegal acts such as parking on broken yellow lines just before zebra crossings impede children's visibility of approaching traffic.
"We want people to behave not just because the parking officer's there. It's about trying to improve the actual habit."
Ms Hay said parents are informed of the programme's "any time, any place" philosophy when the school signs up.
Another 25 schools have also signed up to a programme where registration details of cars involved in bad driving or parking are faxed to the council, which then contacts the car owners with a letter citing the dangers of their practice.
One Gladstone parent welcomed the reduced speed limit outside his Carrington Rd home.
"It's a race-track out there now. Cars and trucks often speed past at 70km/h. It'll be much safer for everyone."
Safety Ring
40km/h schools starting this term:
St Joseph's, Onehunga.
Ruapotaka Primary, Panmure.
Gladstone Primary, Mt Albert.
Te Papapa, Onehunga.
Christ the King, Mt Roskill.
St Mary's, Papakura.
Three Kings School.
St Heliers School.
*The 40km/h speed limit applies only in the 35 minutes before the start of school and for 20 minutes at the end of school, starting five minutes before the final bell.
