Holiday speeding in Hawke’s Bay: Camera cop nabs 39 drivers in four hours

A few hours on the highway in the morning is enough to keep highway policeman Constable Karl Hewitt in touch with the reality that there are people who could be a risk on the roads over the Christmas-New Year holiday period.

In four hours of waving the radar speed detector on Wednesday morning in Hawke’s Bay, he had clocked 39 people exceeding the speed limit near Pakipaki.

He said at that rate he starts just waiting for an accident to happen, with excessive speed one of the major causes of fatalities on New Zealand roads, with 324 having been recorded this year up to midnight on Wednesday.

He says the 80km/h speed limit put in place on more than 70km of State Highway 5 between Napier and Taupō in February 2022 has saved lives.

What has also helped, he says, is the Stay Alive on 5 campaign, which heightened both Hawke’s Bay and Bay of Plenty police presence on the highway after a spate of nine deaths from February 2019 to October 2020.

Earlier this year, a report estimated that dropping the speed limit from 100km/h to 80km/h had prevented 34 crashes over the past 12 months.

Now it turns to the official Christmas-New Year holiday road toll period, which starts at 4pm on Friday and ends at 6am on January 3.

There were 21 deaths during the period last year in New Zealand, an average of two a day and the most since 2017.

Constable Karl Hewitt at the ready: Slow down or get ticketed. Photo / Warren Buckland.

Police say there will be a high presence of staff on highways throughout the country, and not using if people are committing speeding or other offences they will get caught.

National Road Policing Centre director Steve Greally said speed, alcohol, drugs, distraction and drivers and passengers not using seatbelts or other restraints remain the factors in the hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries on New Zealand roads.

“Please take your time and drive to the conditions,” he said. But, he added: “While police focus is on the driver’s behaviours when it comes to road safety, the safety of our vehicles is equally important.”

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, personalities, and, sadly, fatalities on the roads.