As fatalities rise, advocates question police reduction of road safety enforcement

June 14, 2019

Safety advocates are questioning whether police are missing in action in New Zealand roads.

Road safety advocates are questioning why police have radically reduced their road safety enforcement in the last few years despite the number of people being killed on our roads increasing.

It comes after there were 3 million breath tests carried out in 2013, but just 1.4 million last year.

The number of tickets issued for seatbelts and child restraints has tumbled too, down almost 40 per cent since 2014.

The number of police officer issued speeding tickets has also gone down in the last two years.

"We've raised those concerns with police and we're wanting to see that really visible police presence we think that's vital for road safety," AA Road Safety's Dylan Thomsen told 1 NEWS.

In 2013, New Zealand had its lowest road toll in 60 years, but since then its climbed substantially with last year the worst in a decade.

Under Police Commissioner Mike Bush, the police have backed away from road safety enforcement, and the Government's pointing the finger at the previous administration.

"When Mike Bush took over the police were woefully under resourced and...policing numbers dropped by 111," Police Minister Stuart Nash said.

"It wasn't until this Government came in that we got road policing numbers up to full muster." 

Police say road safety remains a priority.

"There was a period where our number of dedicated road policing staff fell from where it had been," Deputy Police Commissioner Andy Coster said.

"This commissioner has driven the numbers back up to where they were, so we now have in excess of 1000 dedicated road safety staff." 

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