Wairarapa drivers back speed crackdown

Wairarapa Road Safety Council manager Bruce Pauling said there was a "groundswell of support" for the permanent lowering of speed tolerance.

A "groundswell of support" is developing for lower police tolerance towards speeding drivers to be made permanent, a local road safety advocate says.

A summer crackdown on speeding which will lead to fines for drivers travelling more than 4km/h above the legal limit is strongly supported by the public, a Herald-DigiPoll survey shows.

Police have previously lowered the speed tolerance from 10km/h to 4km/h at long weekends and public holidays, but the lower threshold has been in force for all of December and runs until the end of January.

If the 62-day trial is successful, it could mark the end of the 10km/h speed tolerance.

Wairarapa Road Safety Council manager Bruce Pauling said there was a "groundswell of support" for the permanent lowering of speed tolerance and locals were no longer prepared to put up with speeding drivers.

"There is a speed limit and in any event, we shouldn't be exceeding that by any amount. All motorists and their families just want to get to their destinations safely."

Drivers had been assuming up until now that it was okay to stretch the limit by 10-15km/h.

"Let's face it, the speed limits are there for a reason. It's a matter of people getting used to the fact you actually can't break those limits."

A permanent lower tolerance was something "people would get used to", he said.

Changing attitudes among younger drivers also corresponded with a drop in youth road fatalities last year.

Even so, learning to drive was like practising an instrument or training for sport - putting in the time had the best and safest results, he said.

Last year's national road toll of 254 deaths was the lowest in 63 years.

There were 18 fatalities in the Wellington region in 2013, up from 11 the previous year.

Separate figures for the Wairarapa were unavailable.

The Herald poll showed two-thirds of respondents felt the low tolerance policy was fair because it was about safety. Just 29 per cent said it was unfair and about raising revenue.

Assistant Commissioner for Road Policing Dave Cliff said he was "pleased" with the show of support for the initiative.

But police needed time to review the data once the trial was over before any decisions were made.

The Automobile Association has said that for the lower tolerance level to be successful it needed to be focused on trouble spots - not just motorways and passing lanes - and had to be combined with highly visible enforcement.

But police want drivers to slow down everywhere.

"The way we target it at the moment is we focus on areas of greatest risk. But one of the really important things to remember is about half of the fatal crashes happen in locations where there's never been one before," Mr Cliff said.

December was the first time the low tolerance was introduced for the whole month, and with 23 fatalities, it was also the lowest road toll for the period since 1965. Meanwhile, last year saw a 38 per cent reduction in road deaths among 25-39 year olds. APNZ