Zero tolerance speeding blitz near schools

Police plan to ticket drivers exceeding the speed limit by just 5km/h near schools in a nationwide blitz to save young lives.

Speed-camera zones are being set up around scores of schools ready for when most children return from their summer holidays on February 7.

Road policing manager Superintendent Dave Cliff said yesterday: "This is about keeping kids alive. If people are travelling faster than 55km/h past a school where they can clearly see children playing, that is just ridiculous and they have to modify their behaviour."

Anyone caught driving faster than 55km/h within 250m of a school boundary between 7.30pm and 9am, or 3pm and 4.30pm, can count on being ticketed.

Demerit points may be added for those stopped by police patrols, rather than merely being caught on camera.

This follows a decision by police to reduce their normal tolerance of drivers travelling up to 10km over the prevailing speed limit.

For the past five years, most drivers have been allowed to travel at up to 60km/h in urban areas before being fined, or up to 110km/h on the open road.

The national police speed enforcement guide says drivers of other than heavy vehicles who exceed the speed limit by less than 11km/h will not normally be ticketed "providing their speed does not present a risk to public safety in the prevailing circumstances".

"A consistent approach enables police to recognise reasonable variations in speedometer accuracy across the public national vehicle fleet while providing motorists with certainty of outcome should they drive at inappropriate or excessive speeds," it says.

Mr Cliff said reducing speed was crucial to the safety of children, who had only a 15 per cent chance of surviving being hit by a vehicle at 60km/h, compared with a 55 per cent chance at 50km/h.

They had lower survival odds than adults because of being lower to the ground, particularly if hit by a four-wheel-drive.

Yet the driver of a vehicle hitting a child at 60km/h faced little chance of injury, so was laying all the risk of speeding on young pedestrians or cyclists.

The Automobile Association fully supports the proposed crackdown, although it wants the police to give fair warning to motorists of the lower speed threshold.

Spokesman Mike Noon said the association's longer-term preference was for a 40km/h speed limit around schools at peak times, but the high cost of variable signs required for that purpose was a hurdle.

Local councils were given powers almost two years ago to reduce speed limits where appropriate, but few have done so, and Mr Noon said the AA was prepared to lobby the Government to relax the rules on signs.

Mr Cliff said the police were planning a round of advertising about the blitz, which would continue throughout February and March before going into "maintenance" mode.

Educational pamphlets would be available for errant motorists. Anyone driving past a school between 50km/h and 55km/h could also expect to be stopped for a safety lecture.

Mr Cliff said the police would support any council prepared to drop the speed limit around schools to 40km/h, as is the case in parts of Christchurch.

But they could not afford to wait for that to happen before taking some form of action on the youth road toll.

"We can't afford to sit on our hands for another 12 months - every day somewhere in New Zealand a child is being knocked down."


The school toll

Dead
* 28 pedestrians
* 6 cyclists

Serious injuries
* 252 pedestrians
* 125 cyclists

Moderate injuries
* 923 pedestrians
* 753 cyclists

Total: 2087
Accident figures for students aged 5 to 18 on school days since 2001