{"id":200922,"date":"2025-12-25T07:07:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T07:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/200922\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T07:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T07:07:06","slug":"tauranga-and-western-bay-police-target-speed-phones-seatbelts-in-holiday-road-blitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/200922\/","title":{"rendered":"Tauranga and Western Bay police target speed, phones, seatbelts in holiday road blitz"},"content":{"rendered":"

He made \u201cno apologies\u201d for the approach. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will be issued tickets because speeding is a significant contributing factor in serious-injury and fatal crashes. Hopefully, this will drive home to people that any speeding is dangerous and won\u2019t be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SeniorSenior Sergeant Wayne Hunter, the head of the Western Bay of Plenty road policing team. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Risks rise sharply in the rain<\/p>\n

\u201cIt amazes me, the huge speeds some people are prepared to go, particularly on SH29 when it\u2019s raining.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter said he braced for serious crashes as soon as the weather turned.<\/p>\n

SH29 was also \u201cparticularly bad\u201d for inattention and risky behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a road where impatient people take big risks just to get from point A to point B \u2013 overtaking in the wrong places, turning into the path of other vehicles and using mobile phones.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 900 drivers in the Western Bay have been ticketed for phone use in the first nine months of the year \u2013 averaging 100 offenders every month.<\/p>\n

\"MotoristsMotorists illegally using mobile phones, speeding and not wearing seatbelts are on the radar of Western Bay of Plenty road policing staff. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need people to slow down, watch their following distances, be 100% aware of what is happening around them and in front of them, not using their phones or engaged in other distractions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven a momentary lapse of concentration can be deadly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not wearing seatbelts<\/p>\n

Hunter said wearing a seatbelt should be an \u201cautomatic\u201d when people get into a vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWearing a seatbelt will save your life in the event of a crash, especially if your car rolls \u2013 and if you\u2019re not restrained, you\u2019re likely to be ejected through the front windscreen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see people every day not wearing a seat belt and using their phones. That\u2019s why we are continuing to crack down on these behaviours, and also drink and drug-impaired driving. \u201d<\/p>\n

Hunter said the number of road deaths in the Western Bay of Plenty police district remained at five \u2013 the latest fatality was on June 26 \u2013 but, the number could have been far higher.<\/p>\n

He said many people blamed the road when they crashed, but in most cases the driver was responsible for causing the crash.<\/p>\n

People should never drive fatigued because they risked falling asleep at the wheel, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s exactly what happened to the male driver of a car that drove into the back of another car on the Lower Kaimai Range at 3am on December 23. <\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, he wasn\u2019t seriously hurt, but it could easily have been a different story. \u201d<\/p>\n

\"SeniorSenior Sergeant Wayne Hunter says he makes no apology for cracking down on speeding and other risky behaviours. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Though Hunter wouldn\u2019t reveal the number of police out in force across the district over the Christmas holiday period, he said most of the road policing staff and the alcohol and drug-impairment enforcement team would be on duty.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I have also put [speed] radars in all the ordinary patrol cars, so those officers can also jump to help with this type of enforcement when they become free from other frontline duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need people to abide by the road rules strictly. Don\u2019t speed, put down your phone, buckle up and don\u2019t drive if you\u2019ve been drinking or taking drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

NZTA safety reminder<\/p>\n

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi reminded travellers to drive to the conditions, allow extra time and take regular breaks. <\/p>\n

The busiest routes in the Bay of Plenty were expected to include:<\/p>\n

SH2 Paeroa\u2013Waih\u012bSH2 Tauranga\u2013KatikatiSH29 over the Kaimai Range<\/p>\n

Drivers could check expected congestion periods using NZTA\u2019s Bay of Plenty or Waikato summer holiday journey planners.<\/p>\n

A Christmas shutdown on roadworks runs until midnight on January 4, though some temporary traffic management may remain in place to protect work sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the chance for hard\u2011working crews to have some well-earned downtime,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Sandra Conchie<\/a> is a senior journalist at the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post who has been a journalist for 25 years. She covers mainly police, court and other justice stories, plus general news. She has been a Canon Media Awards regional\/community reporter of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He made \u201cno apologies\u201d for the approach. \u201cPeople will be issued tickets because speeding is a significant contributing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,1561,93007,189,78,111,43,139,69,2063,675,1314,123368,25093,8225,1227,3457],"class_list":["post-200922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-bay","tag-blitz","tag-holiday","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-phones","tag-police","tag-road","tag-seatbelts","tag-speed","tag-target","tag-tauranga","tag-western"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}