One district ruled them all when it came to speeding tickets in 2020

Monday, 11 January 2021

Waikato road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno says if you’re speeding in Waikato, expect a ticket.

Waikato police issued thousands more speeding tickets than any other district in the country last year and don't expect them to ease up in 2021.

Data released by New Zealand Police showed that 61,800 officer-issued speeding tickets were issued as of December 14, 2020 in the Waikato region – up from 36,000 during 2019.

The next closest region in 2020 was Canterbury, with 32,167 officer-issued speeding tickets handed out during the nine months to September.

The Waikato region has cracked down on speeding in 2020 with a zero tolerance approach, targetting drivers going 1 to 10 kilometres over the speed limit.

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And while road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno knows some people will think it’s trivial, he said a little bit of speed makes a massive difference when someone makes a mistake.

Penno said they targetted people going 1 to 10 kilometres over the speed limit because research showed by reducing the mean speed on the road it reduced the number of fatal crashes.

”That little bit of speed makes a massive difference when someone makes a mistake.

”All the research shows this is the right thing to do.

”We have the total support of Waka Kotahi [NZ Transport Agency].

“They agree because they know the science backs it up.”

With almost double the amount of speeding tickets issued by officers in 2020, Penno said they didn't have more staff this year, they just deployed them on an evidenced-based deployment plan.

“We know our risk roads and times.

“Speed on those roads is what we are targetting, and we will make no apology for that.”

Waikato road policing manager Inspector Jeff Penno believes targetting speed will save lives.

In May, Waikato police ran an operation targeting speeding, and they issued more tickets than they ever had over a monthly period, with more than 8,000 tickets issued.

The number of speeding tickets given to drivers in the region going up to 5kmh over the limit also soared in 2020.

In 2019, there were 30 officer-issued speeding tickets in that bracket, information released to Stuff under the Official Information Act shows.

But from January 1 until July 31 in 2020, there were 103.

The next highest region was Counties Manukau, with 10.

There have been 41 deaths on Waikato roads in 2020, which was more than the 37 in 2019, and Penno said he hoped in 2021 to see the benefits of the speed crackdown.

”I’m convinced with the level of enforcement we will see the benefit of that.

”It takes time for the collective consciousness to realise that we have had a change in enforcement.”

Road safety campaigner Clive Matthew-Wilson has said previously the zero tolerance approach would pointlessly alienate ordinary motorists without solving the real problem.

“The current police anti-speeding campaign will never lower the road toll, because it’s targeting the average motorist rather than the high-risk groups.”

Speed advisory signs, which simply show motorists what speed they’re doing without issuing a ticket, was favoured by Matthew-Wilson.

“That’s how they do it in Sweden, which has the world’s lowest road toll.”

For nine months of 2020, $4,699,480 of fines had been collected for officer-issued speeding tickets, compared with $3,188,200 for the same time period in 2019.