Motorists making right calls

Reports of traffic offences are up in Rotorua.

Reports of traffic offences in Rotorua's police district were up by 15 per cent last financial year and a sergeant says locals are doing the right thing by calling in incidents.

Police figures show the number of reports of traffic offending in the Bay of Plenty rose from 15,094 in the 2013/2014 financial year to 17,331 last financial year.

The data include events reported by phone through the 111 emergency and *555 traffic lines or discovered by police. Events reported multiple times are recorded once in the data.

Rotorua police Acting Senior Sergeant Andrew Lynch said the public were doing the right thing by reporting incidents they weren't happy with.

Rotorua's traffic issues included driving behaviour out of line with the road code or good driving practice, said Mr Lynch.

The roadworthiness of vehicles could also be an issue, he said.

"I think people are getting a little bit concerned about what they're seeing."

Police were promoting reporting traffic incidents and were encouraged that members of the public were doing so.

Figures showed reports of unauthorised street racing were up from 664 to 845 in the Bay of Plenty police district.

Mr Lynch said street racing had never been a major issue in Rotorua.

"I know certain parts of the Bay have had their problems, but not in Rotorua."

Data showed animals featured in 1019 traffic events in the police district.

Mr Lynch said animal incidents popped up every so often in Rotorua. Most farms had good boundary fences but the odd one caused an issue.

Stock issues were treated as a priority when reported to police, because of the potentially serious consequences.

Overall, reported traffic-related events rose from just under 22,000 in the Bay of Plenty police district in the 2013/2014 financial year to just under 24,500 last financial year. There were more than 3000 vehicle collisions reported and more than 2000 road hazards.

Nationwide, the number of *555 calls increased by more than 42,000 last financial year on the previous one.

There were nearly 308,000 *555 calls received last financial year.

People can dial *555 free from a mobile phone to report road incidents which are urgent but not life-threatening. This includes such things as non-injury crashes, erratic driving, traffic congestion, breakdowns and obstructions on the highway, according to police.

Police encouraged members of the public to report driving incidences, including road hazards, wandering stock, traffic offending and street racing.