Under pressure: Bus incidents revealed
Some buses driven at speed result in tickets and fines in Bay of Plenty
Buses in the Bay of Plenty have been caught speeding 271 times during the past three years, with at least one bus being caught doing 132km/h in a 100km/h zone.
The breaches of speed limits have resulted in $24,700 in fines.
And the local union representatives says he’s not surprised.
Data obtained by NZME reveals a breakdown of buses caught by police for speeding in the Western Bay, Rotorua, Taupo¯, and Eastern Bay of Plenty during 2018, 2019, and 2020.
In the Western Bay of Plenty alone, police caught 113 buses breaking the speed limit. Police also issued tickets to 20 buses in Rotorua, 47 in Taupo¯ and 21 in the Eastern Bay.
Sixteen of the speeding buses were caught outside schools.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council manages the local bus network that covers Tauranga, Rotorua and Whakata¯ne urban and rural areas, plus Tauranga’s urban school buses.
Public Transport Committee chairman Andrew von Dadelszen said the council changed contractors to NZ Bus in 2018 and as part of the transition the number of buses increased from 98 to 135.
“They employed a lot more drivers and, to be honest, a lot more drivers had driver training issues in the early stages but I haven’t heard any issues around that lately. I certainly did back in 2018/19 but in the last year, nothing’s been reported to me to show concern of speeding drivers.”
Von Dadelszen said it was important buses were on time but he did not condone speeding, which “puts people in danger”.
The highest speeds were 132km/h on State Highway 1 in Taupo¯ , 120km/ h on SH30 in Rotorua and 119km/h on SH2 in the Western Bay, all in 100km/h zones. Police offiers gave the three drivers tickets of $300, $120 and $120 respectively.
Another bus was caught via speed camera travelling at 123km/h in a 100km/h zone, on SH1 in Taupo¯ prompting a $170 ticket.
Of the 50km/h limited urban roads, most speeding bus drivers were caught on Maunganui Rd in the Western Bay and Vaughan Rd in Rotorua. One was caught speeding four times in the same spot and fined $480.
A Tauranga cyclist, who would not be named, said he was clipped by a bus on Oceanbeach Rd a few weeks ago and was concerned about