Porirua’s trap for speedsters

The Whitford Brown Ave speed camera is the country’s busiest, having clocked up more than $1 million in fines in nine months last year.

Figures released by New Zealand Police show that in the first nine months of 2015, 15,273 infringement notices were given to motorists caught travelling faster than 54kmh. That put $1,139,490 into the Government coffers.

The second most lucrative camera in New Zealand was the one in Ngauranga Gorge. It collected $1,070,000 from 14,200 notices.

After complaints from residents, Kapi-Mana News last February asked police for the number of fines resulting from the Whitford Brown camera, and the highest speed clocked along the road, but we were refused.

We were told that ‘‘due to a technical recording error, [police] could not provide information relating to specific cameras’’.

Also, releasing data on speeds risked ‘‘glorifying such behaviour and could promote copycat behaviour... thereby creating a public safety risk’’, even though incidents of speeding was regularly in the media.

The police have now chosen to release the information.

The Whitford Brown camera has operated since September, 2014. The speed limit has been 50kmh since 2008, when it was lowered from 70kmh after the death of air accident investigator Ron Chippindale.

Aotea Residents Association chairman Rodney Strong said he had heard people were travelling down nearby Aotea Dr to avoid the speed camera. It was an issue the association would be raising with Porirua City Council.

He felt 50kmh was the right speed for Whitford Brown Ave and everyone who used it regularly should be aware of the limit.

‘‘It’s a busy road and with the Countdown supermarket and [The Fjord] turn going in it will get busier,’’ he said. ‘‘If you get pinged, you’ve really got no one to blame but yourself.’’

‘‘If you get pinged, you’ve really got noone to blame but yourself.’’

Senior sergeant Ian Martin, the acting Wellington district road policing manager, said last year the site was chosen because there had been 28 crashes along Whitford Brown between 2004 and 2014.

Our story last March about the lack of signage indicating the road was 50kmh received a huge response, many residents telling us they had regularly received fines, sometimes twice in one day.