Tūrangi Police: Cold snap catches drivers unawares

Winter conditions on the Desert Road last week. Photo / Waka Kotahi

Kia ora tātou, the school holidays are coming up and with that, an upsurge in the traffic on our roads. Be patient if you're travelling and allow extra time as a large number of visitors will be either passing through or stopping in our area.

The weather is appalling at the moment. It's cold, it's icy, it's wet and it's often quite dark even during the daytime too. So although I say this every winter, I'll say it again: please drive to the conditions. So far we've only had the one really cold snap but it caught quite a few drivers unawares and sent them sliding off the road and into banks, culverts and the like. Luckily nobody was seriously injured, but if they had slid into oncoming traffic it could have been a different story.

Last Sunday morning alone we were called to four cars sliding off the road, three of them on Waihi Hill and another on the Te Ponanga Saddle between Tokaanu and Rotoaira and there have been three trucks sliding around on the Desert Rd. A lot of the crashes have been because of ice and/or wet conditions, so our message remains the same: take your time, slow down. Check your vehicle and make sure it's up to standard and most of all, drive to the conditions.

Speaking of the roads, NZ Police are running Operation Deterrence and it focuses on four areas: restraints (seatbelts and car seats), impairments (drink, drugs, fatigue, medication), distraction (cellphones) and speed. Tūrangi Police are proactively engaging with and educating the community around these four areas, but where needed we'll also use the appropriate consequences of enforcement which, in some cases, will mean issuing tickets.

Sergeant Te Reipa Morunga, Tūrangi Police. Photo / File

So expect to see us running operations, conducting checkpoints and doing mobile patrols checking drink-driving, cellphone use, restraints and speed in the next few months. They are all pretty self-explanatory but in terms of restraints it does mean you and your children are appropriately restrained. A lot of people don't wear seatbelts because they think "I'm only going around the corner" or they can't even be bothered doing it up, but it's a well-known fact that in a crash, seatbelts save lives.

In terms of kids' restraints, the law says children must be in an approved child restraint until they are at least 7 years, however it is safest to keep them in a child restraint or booster seat until they are 148cm tall or 11 years old. For children under 2 years, rear-facing restraints are safest. Make sure your kids are in an appropriate child restraint for their age or height.

Just a warning to finish. You've heard of drink-driving but drink-fishing is also a thing, and although some anglers like to take a drink or two with them to help keep warm, it can be dangerous to have too much. Just recently an angler fell in the Tauranga-Taupo River while intoxicated and it was only luck that somebody was close by to pull him out. So a word of advice to the fishermen out there: save your drinks for after you've finished the fishing.

Kia pai tō wiki, Te Reipa.