A police checkpoint in Upokongaro earlier this year. Photo / Bevan Conley
A police checkpoint in Upokongaro earlier this year. Photo / Bevan Conley
Police will continue to target Whanganui drivers not wearing seatbelts and those using cellphones behind the wheel during August.
Two recent checkpoints in Whanganui East resulted in 28 infringement notices being issued for restraint offences and a further 22 for mobile phone offences.
So far this year 185 people have been killed on New Zealand roads with 26 of those deaths in the Central Districts region that includes Whanganui.
Whanganui Police Sarjeant Colin Wright said that at this time last year there had been 28 deaths.
"It's disappointing for us here because, nationally, fatality numbers are down significantly, but in Central Districts we've stayed pretty much the same," Wright said.
"We would have expected lower figures because of the huge reduction in traffic over the Covid-19 lockdown."
The police had the support of "the vast majority of people in the community" when it came to restraint and cellphone use, Wright said, but there was still a " hardcore group" who continued to answer the phone or didn't wear a seatbelt while they were behind the wheel.
Whanganui Police Sergeant Colin Wright. Photo / File
"We're really trying to get people wearing seatbelts, and I'd rather give someone a ticket and they wear one forever more, as opposed to not giving a ticket and find out they've been critically injured or killed," Wright said.
"There are still a fair few people out there who aren't obeying these rules, and anecdotally, I'm sure members of the public see it all the time as well.
"It's definitely a worry, especially in built up areas with children and pedestrians about.
"When we do checkpoints, because we have spotters, things like restraints and cellphone usage are fairly easy to pick up on.
"We're wearing plainclothes to look like members of the public on the side of the road but we're not hiding and using binoculars.
"The police could run another checkpoint in a month and "probably catch similar numbers of people again", Wright said.
"Not wearing a seatbelt doesn't necessarily mean that you're a bad driver, but if you have a crash you're more likely to harm yourself or kill yourself - it's as simple as that," Wright said.
"The force on safety belts can be as much as 20 times your body weight, so that's how hard you'd hit the inside of your vehicle without restraint."
*41,566 people in NZ were issued an infringement notice for restraint-related offences in 2019, with 9.5 per cent (3764) of those issued in Central Districts.
