Speed trap on bridge hotspot

Auckland Harbour Bridge speed cameras have been extra busy snapping speeding holiday drivers, discovers EUGENE BINGHAM.

Poised either side of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, two of the country's busiest speed cameras are ready and waiting for you this New Year.

Police figures show the 80 km/h limit sweep up and over the bridge is a veritable speed trap for motorists.

Mobile cameras monitoring the southbound lanes snapped an average of 169 speeding motorists an hour during the year to June 30, the second-highest rate in the country.

Northbound traffic passing over the bridge gave cameras an average rate of 111 photographs an hour.

The country's top five camera locations were all in Auckland.

The busiest was on Onewa Rd, Birkenhead, between Valley Rd and Birkenhead Ave. Speed camera cars parked there snapped an average of 207 photographs an hour - more than three a minute.

And evidence from this week shows people have kept their speed up during the holidays.

A spokesman for the Auckland police motorway section said the cameras around the harbour bridge had been extra busy.

More than 700 photographs were taken either side of the bridge over Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The fastest speed recorded on camera was 132 km/h - more than 50 km/h over the limit.

Three speeding drivers had their licences taken off them in one hour for travelling too fast.

"I can't remember it being that busy before," said the spokesman. "Maybe it's a combination of a period without speed cameras and strangers to Auckland not used to the speed limit being in town."

Fixed cameras and laser speed guns were switched off for four months after the discovery of a legal loophole meant the courts could no longer automatically accept the accuracy of speed enforcement devices in certain areas.

The loophole was shut when Parliament passed legislation under urgency just before Christmas.

Figures obtained by the Weekend Herald under the Official Information Act show that Auckland speed cameras are the busiest.

The fixed camera on Waipuna Rd, Mt Wellington, took more than 13,000 pictures in 511 hours of operation in the year to June 30.

Another fixed camera, on Great North Rd, Avondale, snapped more than 12,200 motorists.