Driver snapped seven times in a month

FOR many drivers, one speeding camera ticket is enough to persuade them to ease off the accelerator.

But Wainuiomata’s Iain McDonald is crying foul after being snapped seven times in less than a month.

All the tickets are from the new digital camera at the bottom of Wainuiomata hill, which began operating in October, and were clocked up between December 22 and January 11.

McDonald said that he did not have a lead foot and the speeds he was doing were between 55 and 57kmh in a 50kmh zone.

‘‘I’ve always believed the tolerance is normally less than 60kmh.’’ The frustrated driver said he had filed complaint with police and had also

a been in touch with Hutt South MP Trevor Mallard and Lower Hutt Mayor Ray Wallace.

‘‘I was aware that there is always a temporary reduction of open road tolerances over the Christmas period, but what wasn’t communicated was that this seems to have also applied to urban speed cameras.’’

He said the ‘‘string of spurious tickets’’ was a ‘‘rort’’ and the first infringement notice did not show up in his mailbox until after he had been nabbed for the eighth time, making it a futile deterrent.

He claimed police communication about urban speed limits had been poor. There had been ‘‘mixed messages’’ about speeding and tolerance levels during the holiday campaign, and he said Police Minister Michael Woodhouse had re- cently admitted this.

However, Senior Sergeant Richard Hocken, of the Wellington district road policing group, said McDonald only had himself to blame for his stream of speeding tickets.

‘‘The message to this driver and other drivers is that the numbers in the red circles on the side of the road are the limit, and always represent the maximum speed that can be driven on that road in good conditions.

‘‘Anything over the limit ing.’’

Most speedometers were calibrated on the high side, so compliance with the posted speed limit should not attract attention from speed cameras or police officers, Hocken said.

Speed cameras had a threshold of 4kmh during December and January.

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