NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • All Blacks
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Speeding Auckland bus drivers snapped 10,500 times

Amy Wiggins
By Amy Wiggins
Education reporter, NZ Herald.·NZ Herald·
14 Mar, 2021 04:00 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
10Comments

Subscriber benefit

The ability to gift paywall-free articles is a subscriber only benefit. See more offers by clicking the button below.

Already a subscriber?  Sign in here
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Bus drivers in Auckland racked up 10,500 speed camera tickets and more than 500 for running red lights in the last five years. Photo / Michael Craig
Bus drivers in Auckland racked up 10,500 speed camera tickets and more than 500 for running red lights in the last five years. Photo / Michael Craig

Bus drivers in Auckland racked up 10,500 speed camera tickets and more than 500 for running red lights in the last five years. Photo / Michael Craig

Nearly $700,000 worth of fines have been handed out to speeding bus drivers in the past five years, including one who was clocked going 61km/h over the limit.

The Herald can reveal more than 10,500 tickets were issued to Auckland bus drivers and a further 553 fines, worth almost $83,000, were issued to those who were caught running red lights.

Fines range from $30 to $630 depending on how fast the driver was going - but those caught going more than 50km/h over the limit resulted in a court summons for careless, dangerous or reckless driving

Two of the worst offenders were clocked in 2018 doing 111km/h and 109km/h in the 50km/h zone on Great South Rd between Beatty St and Bairds Rd, Otahuhu.

One bus driver received a $510 fine after being caught going 43km/h over the limit on the same stretch of road, while six drivers received $400 fines for going 36-40km/h over the limit in other parts of the city.

Start your day in the know

Get the latest headlines straight to your inbox.
Please email me competitions, offers and other updates. You can stop these at any time.
By signing up for this newsletter, you agree to NZME’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Read More

  • 30,000 fare dodgers caught on Auckland's public transport - NZ Herald
  • Auckland Transport sets the groundwork for New Zealand's first hydrogen bus - NZ Herald
  • Road to Zero: Everything you need to know about the government's new road safety strategy - NZ ...

The figures have come as a surprise to the Public Transport Users Association and the union that represents a large number of drivers who work for NZ Bus.

"There's absolutely no excuse for exceeding the speed limit and putting their passengers, themselves and other road users at risk," said Gary Froggatt, president of the Auckland Tramways Union.

Public Transport Users Association national co-ordinator Jon Reeves was stunned by the figures.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It's a bit of a concern for the safety and well-being of passengers that bus drivers are risking speeding," he said.

But it was the high speeds that really concerned Reeves.

"A bus driver doing 111km/h in a 50km/h zone - that driver needs to be stood down from operating public transport. You can't forgive a driver that's doing that in a large bus in an urban zone. That's absolutely ridiculous," he said.

He suggested Auckland Transport consider requiring all buses to have governors on the engine to prevent them from being able to go over 100km/h as they did in some other countries, or have more stringent vetting of drivers.

Running red lights was equally as dangerous, Reeves said. "If you get hit by a bus you'll know about it. Only one vehicle wins in those circumstances."

As for the increasing number of tickets, he wondered if increasing congestion and lowered speed limits on many roads was making it harder for bus drivers to stick to their timetables causing them to speed or run red lights to make up time.

The police data, released to the Herald under the Official Information Act, showed the number of speed camera tickets issued to buses in Auckland climbed steadily from 1755 in 2016 to 2818 in 2019.

The number then dropped to 1716 last year, probably a reflection of less traffic on the road during Covid-19 lockdown periods.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Bus drivers in Auckland racked up 10,500 speed camera tickets and more than 500 for running red lights in the last five years. Photo / Greg Bowker
Bus drivers in Auckland racked up 10,500 speed camera tickets and more than 500 for running red lights in the last five years. Photo / Greg Bowker

Drivers were most commonly caught speeding through or near the SH20 Waterview tunnel, followed by the route along Great South Rd between Beatty St and Bairds Rd and then on in the Dome Valley between Waiwhiu Rd and Forestry Rd.

For red light runners, the number of buses stung with the $150 fine each year rose from 21 in 2016 when there were only two cameras in the city to 223 in 2019 across 18 cameras. As with speeding tickets, the number dropped in 2020 with 147 infringements recorded across 25 cameras.

The intersection of New North Rd and Blockhouse Bay Rd, which has had a red light camera since 2018, was the worst spot with 114 tickets issued at a value of $17,100.

Froggatt said he was shocked by the number of speeding tickets dished out.

He said sticking to tight timetables caused some bus drivers to speed or run red lights but they were encouraged to let their bosses know if the routes could not be completed on schedule so they could work with Auckland Transport to alter it.

Froggatt said he expected ticket numbers would have declined because each bus had a device which recorded speeds and signalled the driver if it detected they were going too fast.

Bus drivers had to pay the fine for any traffic infringements themselves and, in the case of NZ Bus, were penalised with anything from a written warning to dismissal, he said.

He was less surprised about the number of drivers running red lights and highlighted the New North Rd/Blockhouse Bay Rd intersection as problematic because the phasing made it hard to turn right, causing frustrated drivers to push the limits.

Bus drivers in Auckland racked up 10,500 speed camera tickets and more than 500 for running red lights in the last five years. Photo / Michael Craig
Bus drivers in Auckland racked up 10,500 speed camera tickets and more than 500 for running red lights in the last five years. Photo / Michael Craig

Ritchies Transport director Andrew Ritchie said while 10,540 speeding tickets sounded like a lot it became "more of a fair figure" when you considered the hundreds of thousands of kilometres drivers travelled.

"People get a bit careless and forget and get a speed camera ticket," he said. "The average speed for a bus in Auckland is about 16km/h.

Ritchies drivers paid their own fines as well, he said.

More concerning to him were red light runners but he said his staff received very few of those tickets.

"That's just totally unacceptable."

Auckland Transport spokeswoman Natalie Polley said they were always working with operators to ensure bus services remained one of the safest ways to travel.

She said AT monitored events and altered light phasing when issues were identified.

Safety, performance and operator health and safety were taken into account when companies were awarded contracts which would next take place in 2023, she said.

She said driver distraction detection systems had been trialled and would be installed in all buses in the coming years. AT was also working with police to improve the sharing of information about traffic incidents and infringements.

Auckland Transport is also supporting the Vision Zero programme to end road deaths, largely by reducing the speed of vehicles on the road.

Auckland's other major operators Go Bus and NZ Bus could not be reached for comment.

Subscriber benefit

The ability to gift paywall-free articles is a subscriber only benefit. See more offers by clicking the button below.

Already a subscriber?  Sign in here
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

10

Comments

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

'Serious-to-critical': Crash shuts SH1 in Northland, delays expected

06 Jul 08:48 AM
Crime

'No bad blood': Inmate apologises for shanking prison officer

06 Jul 08:00 AM
Wellington

'Exercise caution': Investigation into Kiwi's death in elephant attack

06 Jul 06:58 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Recommended for you
'Serious-to-critical': Crash shuts SH1 in Northland, delays expected
New Zealand

'Serious-to-critical': Crash shuts SH1 in Northland, delays expected

06 Jul 08:48 AM
'No bad blood': Inmate apologises for shanking prison officer
Crime

'No bad blood': Inmate apologises for shanking prison officer

06 Jul 08:00 AM
'A nice marlin': Kiwi skipper makes history with $2m fishing triumph
Sport

'A nice marlin': Kiwi skipper makes history with $2m fishing triumph

06 Jul 07:33 AM
'Exercise caution': Investigation into Kiwi's death in elephant attack
Wellington

'Exercise caution': Investigation into Kiwi's death in elephant attack

06 Jul 06:58 AM
Police respond to assault at pool: One hospitalised, charges laid
New Zealand

Police respond to assault at pool: One hospitalised, charges laid

06 Jul 06:31 AM

Latest from New Zealand

'Serious-to-critical': Crash shuts SH1 in Northland, delays expected

'Serious-to-critical': Crash shuts SH1 in Northland, delays expected

06 Jul 08:48 AM

Emergency services were called to the scene about 7.45pm.

'No bad blood': Inmate apologises for shanking prison officer

'No bad blood': Inmate apologises for shanking prison officer

06 Jul 08:00 AM
'Exercise caution': Investigation into Kiwi's death in elephant attack

'Exercise caution': Investigation into Kiwi's death in elephant attack

06 Jul 06:58 AM
Police respond to assault at pool: One hospitalised, charges laid

Police respond to assault at pool: One hospitalised, charges laid

06 Jul 06:31 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search