Covid-19: Speeding fines, police pursuits increase during lockdown
Police officers issued more speeding fines during the nationwide lockdown than they did during the same period a year before.
During lockdown, major cities saw traffic congestion drop by up to 80 percent, and total traffic was estimated to be down by almost half.
Police say the empty roads led some drivers to think speeding was okay, hence the big increase in fines issued.
In April, during alert levels 4 and 3, 21,077 speeding fines were given to motorists by officers, up almost 1000 on April 2019.
In May, when the alert level dropped to 2, 33,320 speeding tickets were issued by officers, more than 13,000 more than the previous year.
It was the highest number of speeding tickets issued by officers in the month of May in at least 12 years.
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RNZ: Ben Strang, August 27, 2020
