What the police don’t want you to know about the new unmarked highway patrol vehicles

Waikato Police have a new set of unmarked highway patrol vehicles that are ready to take people anywhere, anytime.

This is the first time these vehicles have been deployed in New Zealand and all they want you to know about them is that they are SUVs.

Inspector Jeff Penno, manager of road safety, would not reveal how many vehicles there were, what variety of colors there were, and he did not want the make and model to be shared.

All you wanted people to know was that if they were sitting at the stoplight texting, speeding, or not wearing a seat belt, they would see you before you see them.

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The Waikato district is the first police district in the country to receive these cars due to the high volume of traffic that travels some of the worst roads in the country, he said.

Despite nearly three months of lockdown in 2020, the highway toll increased in Waikato, with 39 people dying on the roads, eight more than in the same period in 2019.

Nationally, highway tolls have dropped, with 288 road deaths so far this year compared to 306 in 2019.

Having Waikato’s numbers up was devastating, Penno said.

“We know that our application has gone up [and] we know we are making the right kind of application.

“We know that all of our deployment is test-based and we know that our serious injury crashes are down seven percent.

“All the signs are on the right track, except for our deaths, and it’s devastating.”

Driving with Penno in one of the new unmarked vehicles, Things he witnessed vehicles traveling at more than 130 kilometers per hour, unaware that a police car was passing.

In the past four months around Waikato, the highway patrol unit had been issuing 150 speeding tickets per week, with more than 600 violation notices issued in October for cell phone use.

Of the fatal crashes in 2020, Penno said there were still people dying because they weren’t properly restrained.

“[This] it’s such a basic prevention thing you can do to protect yourself and your loved ones.

“[And] we also continue to see drunk drivers, both from drugs and alcohol, as a key factor in deaths. “

During the month of November, the Waikato police had been executing Operation Physical. The objective? Speed.

Penno said the reason behind this was because even when speed did not cause the accident, it was the biggest determining factor in whether people were moving away or getting carried away.

“A small change in speed makes a big difference in the severity of injuries in a crash, for you and everyone else involved.”

He said the research indicated that speed was a factor in 30 percent of fatal crashes and 21 percent of serious injury crashes.

“A third of our crashes are mistakes, we are human, we make mistakes.”

Of the fatal crashes in Waikato, 10 were single vehicle crashes, nine were motorcyclists and five were pedestrians.

The large number of pedestrians was very unusual, he said.

“The speed factor in that is fundamental and possibly contributes to those people losing their lives.”

Heading into the holiday period, he said Waikato’s roads would be busier than ever due to no international travel, urging people to expect delays.

“These roads were never designed to keep up with the cars we left them.

“Each trip will last twice as long as normal, so keep that in mind and plan your breaks.”

The booze bus would also be a family-friendly sight for folks heading into the holiday season, with locations in downtown Waikato and in rural areas.