“Despite a 300% increase in speeding tickets issued on Glenbrook Road and Glenbrook-Waiuku Road since the speed limit was reduced from 100km/h to 80km/h in 2020, the number of deaths and serious injuries has remained concerningly high”, says Franklin Local Board member Gary Holmes..

New data reveals that between 2018 and 2023, on this one stretch of road there were:

• 2 fatal crashes
• 14 serious injury crashes
• 45 minor injury crashes

While only 10% of these crashes were attributed to speeding, the significant increase in speeding tickets issued raises questions about the effectiveness of the current enforcement strategy and whether, in fact, it is just a revenue gathering exercise.

Mr Hoilmes, who represents the Waiuku sub-division, says the numbers don’t add up. “In the past five years, more than $3 million in fines have been collected on what is effectively a dead-end road (the road leads to Waiuku and the Awhitu peninsula), and the number of speeding tickets issued has exceed 7,000 annually since the limit change. In the year immediately prior to the speed reduction, just over 2,000 speeding tickets were issued,” he said.

NZTA Waka Kotahi is currently installing two average speed (point-to-point) safety camera corridors on Glenbrook Road: Glenbrook Road East and Glenbrook Road West. This will involve installing a total of four cameras - two cameras on each corridor; one camera at each end of each corridor, adding to the two normal fixed speed cameras currently operating.

Mr Holmes says he is worried that rather than reducing death and serious injury crashes, the installation of the new cameras will only serve to bolster the government’s coffers.

“Based on the last five years, we could easily see fines in excess of $1-2 million being issued each year, with no resulting drop in the number of crashes”, Mr Holmes stated, saying that he believed the poor state of rural roads in the area was more a factor than speeding drivers.

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