Increase speed fines
Rising road toll frustrating safety officials who say ‘ low’ fines useless
Road safety officials say our “very low” speeding fines aren’t working and want tougher penalties to lower the road toll.
But the Government has been accused of refusing to listen, sparking claims it is trading lives for votes.
New documents show officials are reviewing speeding offences and penalties and want to start giving demerit points to drivers who get caught by speed cameras.
But the documents also show a previous plan to slow motorists with demerit points on speed camera fines was rejected because of “political caution”.
The focus on speeding fines and demerits comes amid concern over our road toll which has started to climb after t wo decades of steady falls.
There have been 203 people die on our roads this year — over 20 more than this time last year — in a trend that has seen an increase since 2013.
The move to take a fresh approach to the road toll was flagged in the May 2017 briefing to incoming Associate Minister of Transport Tim Macindoe, who was told “speed remains the largest single contributing factor to road trauma”.
Macindoe was told NZTA officials and police had concerns “the effectiveness of speed cameras is affected by the relatively low penalties for speeding”.
The briefing to Macindoe stated: “This issue was considered by Cabinet in 2015 and proposals to harmonise the penalties were rejected.”
Despite that, officials pursued the issue internally and have prepared to approach MacIndoe with a fresh bid for tougher penalties.
In April this year, as road safety officials prepared to put a new review plan before Macindoe, NZ Transport Agency’s chief executive Fergus Gammie was told by staff: “Speed enforcement attracts criticism as ‘ revenue gathering’ and some people object to enforcement of low- level speeding as being unduly harsh on otherwise law- abiding . . . drivers.
“There is understandable political caution about increasing the scope of speed enforcement.”
But the move by officials has again been rejected by the Beehive, with a spokesman for Macindoe saying: “The Government does not see a case, and would not support, increasing fines or incurring demerit points from [ speed camera infringements].”
Macindoe’s office said he could not be interviewed on the issue because it could not reach him. Transport Minister Simon Bridges’ spokesman said he wouldn’t because it was Macindoe’s job to do so.
In an NZTA briefing paper on speeding in May 2016, officials said penalties “need to be meaningful and fair”.
“The Transport Agency would also support a future penalty regime that is more reflective of the level of risk caused by illegal speeding, and a fairer approach to demerits that would see demerits applied consistently to all speeding offences irrespective of the method of enforcement.” Another document from November 2016 said: “Very low penalties are not an effective deterrent which results in high rates of offences, reducing safety gains achievable from active speed control.”
And: “Lack of compliance is an accepted normalised deviant behaviour in New Zealand.”
NZTA acting road safety director Dennis Crequer said the “Safer Journeys” road safety strategy through to 2020 operated on the understanding “that if the chance of being caught speeding and being penalised is high, most people will comply with the speed limit”.
He said the Government was finding other ways of reducing death and serious injury by spending on safer roads, safer vehicle technology and “to discourage high- risk road user behaviours”.
New Zealand speeding fines continue to be well below Australia’s.
In Victoria, speeds up to 10km/ h over the limit attract a fine of $ 198 while in New Zealand it is $ 30. At the top end, it narrows but someone going 50km/ h over the limit is fined $ 793 in Victoria but $ 630 in New Zealand.
Green Party transport spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter said New Zealanders would expect the Government to do all that it could to bring the road toll down.
“It suggests the National Government thinks it is more politically acceptable to let people die on our roads than to take steps to reduce speeding”.
She supported demerit points to apply to speed camera fines.
AA motoring affairs general manager Mike Noon said surveys of its members showed 47 per cent of motorists were opposed to demerit points on cameras.
But he said opposition dropped when the camera demerit points targeted those 20km/ h over the limit.