Canterbury Police are frustrated at the number of motorists observed crossing the centre line on a stretch of highway in North Canterbury.
Over a two-hour period on Waitangi Day, North Canterbury Highway Patrol issued 18 infringements to drivers who were observed crossing the centre line on State Highway 1 just north of the Hundalee mountain range.
Each motorist received a $150 fine and 20 demerit points for failing to keep left. At least one of the motorists observed at one point had all four wheels of the car on the opposite side of the road, on a bend.
Senior Constable Andy Palmer says: “It was disappointing to see so many motorists risking their lives and that of their passengers and other road users by crossing the centre line.
“This is how head-on collisions occur. We are working to ensure these types of collisions are not occurring on our roads and we need motorists to play their part.
“We intend to carry out more of these operations in the near future, to influence better driving behaviour on our roads.”
If those photos are examples of their complaints then I call BS.
The drivers in question have better visibility around that last corner from the wrong side of the road. There is ample space and time for them to move back in to their lane if required.
Smells like revenue gathering and virtue signalling to me.
Judging by the photograph the cars were crossing the line whilst having vision ahead. When I took my advanced license it was taught to use most of the road when safe to do so.
The police are definitely being bell ends if they are slapping people with fines for this. Of course they would never have a conversation, straight to fine no questions asked. Robots.
I’m 100% behind cops enforcing keeping left ahead of trivial infractions of the speed limit.
As a motorbike rider, rounding a corner and finding a car on my side of the road is terrifying. The last thing I need is to be relying on them to move over and not kill me because they happen to have noticed I’m there.
In suburbatb Lower Hutt at least it’s got noticeably worse in recent years. To the extent that entitled Karen’s around my winding suburb routinely use the centerline like one of those robotic white line followers, ie with their vehicle 50% either side of the line.
All the driving basics could benefit from regular reinforcement I believe. For many adult drivers it’s been a long time since they ever sat a road test.