Northland District Headquarters
Walton Plaza, Whangärei
Wednesday August 28, 2013

Northland Police will be increasing its enforcement on the roads over the spring season in an effort to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes.

From September to November all police staff will be regularly patrolling the region's roads, investigating reports of poor driver behaviour (*555 calls) and focusing on high risk drivers and high risk crash locations.

Last year, between September and November, eight people died on Northland's roads with seven of the fatal crashes occurring on state highways.
Four of them were on State Highway One, south of Whangärei.

The causes of these crashes included speed, alcohol/drugs, fatigue, distraction and poor judgement.

Northland Road Policing Manager Inspector Murray Hodson says police do not want to see any one die or get serious injured on the roads this spring.

"Most of the victims in these crashes were Northlanders and at this time of year we see more traffic on the road as people get out and about to take advantage of the warmer weather."

Mr Hodson says police will be concentrating on drivers who breach the five fatal offences of speed, alcohol, restraints, high risk driving and failing to comply with driver licence conditions.

Although the majority of last spring's crashes occurred on the state highways, police will be also be patrolling rural roads.

"Many rural residents become complacent and think they won't be any police on their roads, but we will be there and we will be stopping anyone who is driving badly."

Mr Hodson says all drivers stopped with be breath tested.

"I also encourage people to report poor driving behaviour through the *555 number, as our staff will act on those reports immediately."

"We want to see people enjoy the lead time into summer and have a safe journey on our roads.
There have been 10 deaths on Northland roads so far this year; we don't want to see anymore."

ENDS

© Scoop Media