Tough line on speeding drivers gets wide backing

Public support for tough enforcement of speed limits remains high, a Herald DigiPoll survey reveals.

Just under half the 750 people questioned (47.6 per cent) said the enforcement level was right, and a further 22 per cent wanted police to crack down even harder on speed.

This was even after a survey question highlighted a steep rise in speeding tickets issued in recent years.

However a sizeable minority, 27.8 per cent, thought the police were too strict over speeding.

Acting road policing manager Inspector John Kelly believes more people take exception to speed enforcement because too many think "a little bit of speed is okay".

"But if 70 per cent of people are comfortable with what we are doing or want us to do more, that's fine," he told the Weekend Herald. 

The Herald DigiPoll survey, with a margin of error of 3.6 per cent, was taken over nine days including the worst Easter road toll in 10 years.

Police blamed speed for at least six out of nine deaths this Easter, including those of four youths in a one-car crash near Pukekohe, and for 39 per cent of all those killed last year on the roads.

The survey also followed controversy over a near trebling of speeding tickets issued by police patrols since 2000, and Opposition claims that alleged revenue collection from traffic enforcement was receiving priority over 111 calls about more serious crimes.

Police Minister George Hawkins was pilloried in Parliament for suggesting people were more concerned about being killed on the roads than being murdered orraped.

Automobile Association motoring policy manager Jayne Gale said yesterday that although most people appeared to support stronger penalties against those driving at unsafe speeds, there was a strong feeling that too many were being fined for straying a little over the line in a moment of inattention.

The DigiPoll survey has revealed a strong difference between the attitudes of Aucklanders and others towards speedsters.

Twenty-eight per cent of Aucklanders surveyed wanted tougher policing, compared with just 19.7 per cent of other New Zealanders.

Conversely, 21.7 per cent of Aucklanders though the police were too strict, compared with 30.2 per cent elsewhere.

Men were far more critical of tough policing than women, by 36.1 per cent to 20.3 per cent, and 30.6 per cent of people aged 40 to 60 wanted greater leniency compared with 26 per cent of their juniors.