By JASON COLLIE transport reporter
A 225-strong state highway patrol force will be policing our roads by Christmas under a $152 million road safety programme.
Plans for the patrol force - which will be in addition to existing police numbers - were unveiled in Hamilton yesterday, along with a boost for community road safety and education projects.
Hidden speed cameras will be scrapped, but there will be a crackdown on speeding, with the threshold for a ticket brought down to 10 km/h above the limit.
Transport Minister Mark Gosche hopes the mix of enforcement and education will cut the road toll by up to 85 by the middle of next year.
The new highway patrol, which comes eight years after the merger of the police and Ministry of Transport forces, should be running in the Waikato - the worst area for fatal accidents - and the Bay of Plenty by the Christmas holidays, and in Northland shortly after.
Auckland officers will take to the roads in specially marked patrol cars early next year, with the rest of the country covered by November 2001.
Police Minister George Hawkins said: "We need some specialisation. While most police are good generalists, we have specialisation in the CIB and we need specialists for road safety as well."
National road safety manager Steve Fitzgerald said the patrol would be the "elite," with the present strategic traffic groups retained as the next rung and ordinary police also enforcing traffic laws.
However, National's police spokesman, Brian Neeson, accused the Government of throwing away money on cosmetic changes which would segregate police.
"This move will create a culture where people working in traffic will be treated as second-class citizens by their colleagues."
The $152 million touted by the Government in its pre-Budget announcement is for the next four years. It starts at $26.5 million for the next financial year, eventually rising to $42 million.
The new highway patrol will cost $10 million for the first year, rising to $23.5 million by 2004-5. That will be additional to the police budget, according to Mr Hawkins.
More than $3.5 million is also being added to increase speeding and seatbelt enforcement and breath testing, particularly in rural areas.
An extra $3.837 million is being added to the $2.779 million spent on community road safety initiatives. Of that, $1.125 million will go to projects aimed at Maori and Polynesians. A further $1.688 million will be used for advertising aimed at those groups.
The windfall was welcomed last night by West Auckland road safety coordinator Kitch Cuthbert, who raises $150,000 a year to supplement the $36,000 she receives from the Land Transport Safety Authority and Waitakere City Council.
"I will be delighted not to have any more cake stalls for road safety," she said, describing herself as "blown away."
Mr Gosche said he had ordered an end to hidden speed cameras because he did not believe the pilot in the Waikato had cut speeding or road deaths.
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