Ice has begun to appear on Dunedin roads and police want drivers to avoid slipping and sliding around city streets.
Otago coastal road policing manager Senior Sergeant Nik Leigh said it was important people drove carefully and took precautions as winter approached and ice became an issue around the city.
Dunedin had many different microclimates, and drivers starting their journeys on dry roads might experience ice in other parts of the city, he said.
"The main thing with crashes is nobody gets up in the morning expecting or wanting to be involved with one."
It was important for people to either keep their vehicles in garages overnight, or allow time in the mornings to defrost their windscreens.
"Sometimes we do see drivers trying to look through the tiny little part of their windscreen they’ve managed to dry before taking off," Snr Sgt Leigh said.
"They really don’t have any sort of field of view."
Placing a newspaper or towel over the windscreen overnight could help prevent frost.
Stopping distances changed in winter conditions, especially at speed, he said.
"When there’s bad weather everyone seems to be in more of a hurry, but its really the time to slow down."
The most important thing to do was to wear a seatbelt.
There were recent cases in which people had died because they were not wearing them, he said.
- Additional reporting Daisy Hudson
