20,000 'death traps' on our roads

Almost 20,000 potential "death traps" have been driving around the Bay over the past year and police say they are accidents just waiting to happen.
In the past year, Tauranga City Council have issued 9773 tickets for unregistered, unwarranted or unsafe vehicles found on Western Bay roads, while Tauranga police handed out a further 9719 tickets.
Some vehicles were being driven with bald tyres, illegal suspension modifications, with severely cracked windscreens, and without lighting or exhaust systems.
Police are blaming some of the unsafe vehicles on "backyard mechanics" who are modifying vehicles illegally. Both police and council are concerned for public safety over the increasing number of unsafe vehicles being driven.
Bay road police chief Senior Sergeant Ian Campion said:
"We have dealt with cars over the past two or three months that you can describe as death traps.
"There is a significant number of vehicles out there that aren't currently licensed or are without a warrant of fitness."
The number of people being caught without a warrant by police has nearly doubled in the past six years from 2992 in 2002/2003 to 4907 over the last year. Those being caught without current registration had gone from 2025 to 4066.
"It's these backyard mechanics who are modifying people's cars," Mr Campion said.
"They've got no idea of the safety requirements of suspension, brakes or any engineering knowledge."
He said a number of crashes were attributed to unsafe vehicles but he couldn't say how many.
High standards for a warrant of fitness, cost, or plain laziness could be reasons why people weren't getting their vehicles checked legally, he said.
"But it in some cases it's just ignorance."
Tauranga City Council parking team leader Kevin Nally agreed the number of unsafe vehicles on the road was increasing.
In 2001 warrant and registration tickets amounted to just 8 per cent of the total tickets issued by parking wardens. But in the past financial year (2006/2007) that number had soared to 28 per cent.
"I think this issue is a lot bigger than the number of fines are letting on," Mr Nally told the Bay of Plenty Times.
"There are definitely a significant number of people being caught for this offence."
Neither police nor council have specific resources to find unwarranted or unregistered vehicles. Staff check as part of their routine procedure, which could mean the latest figures represent a fraction of the true amount.
Seven parking wardens cover the Tauranga area.
Tauranga's CBD was the worst offending area with 2749 people being stung without a registration and 1464 without a warrant, while the Mount stood at just 723 and 332 respectively.
Those caught with an unwarranted or unregistered vehicle (you cannot get your vehicle registered without a warrant) are stung with a $200 fine for each offence, although not all of the 19,492 tickets given out by council and police are paid because in some instances the fines can be written off.
For example, when a person gets a warrant of fitness for their vehicle within 14 days of receiving a ticket, the fine is quashed.
Around 2245 registration fines have already been thrown out in the past year.
Note: You can get a ticket for not having your vehicle up to Warrant of Fitness standard even if you have an up-to-date warrant.