Local drivers cop criticism

A rise in the number of traffic offences in Mid-South Canterbury is simply poor driving by New Zealanders, according to the region’s top police officer.

Inspector Dave Gaskin said the rebound in offences to to their pre-Covid levels, despite the district’s traffic flows remaining below average, showed that ‘‘New Zealand drivers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be’’.

‘‘If they could drive properly we wouldn’t be seeing this,’’ Gaskin told The Timaru Herald.

While traffic offences dropped significantly during lockdown they have since sped up with police figures released for July 1-September 30, 2020 showing 9783 motorists were caught speeding through either speed cameras or officer-issued tickets.

The 9783 caught speeding is an increase on the 9624 caught over the same period in 2019

South Canterbury’s only static speed camera, in the 80kmh zone on State Highway 1 at Arowhenua, netted 4067 of the offences.

Gaskin said the number of people being caught speeding by the camera is ‘‘extremely sad’’.

He said despite locals knowing the speed camera is there, the stats show it’s mostly locals being caught by it.

Gaskin said despite the number of people caught by the speed camera, police ‘‘won’t be putting new resource into more cameras’’ and are looking into outsourcing their traffic cameras next year.

In contrast to the rise in offences, Infometrics figures show the traffic flow in the Timaru District, a large part of the Aoraki police district, is down by 7.7 per cent in the year to September, and 7.8 per cent in the Mackenzie District, also a part of the Aoraki area.

Gaskin said less congestion on the roads ‘‘doesn’t give people the excuse to speed’’.

Gaskin said his message was simple.

‘‘If you don’t break the law you won’t get an infringement.’’

Police are, according to Gaskin, putting ‘‘a good amount of resource on the road’’ to combat traffic offending, including two extra police officers in Fairlie.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also meant international tourists, who have been blamed in the past for traffic offending, are not present on the roads.

Injury crash stats for the Mackenzie district show numbers are stable, despite the drop in tourism.

Gaskin said ‘‘perhaps the people who blamed them weren’t right’’.

‘‘New Zealand drivers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. If they could drive properly we wouldn’t be seeing this [rise in tickets].’’ Inspector Dave Gaskin