More than 1000 tickets have been issued over the past week to Dunedin motorists speeding in school zones.
Otago Coastal area road policing manager Senior Sergeant Karl Hemmingsen said the tickets all came from one speed camera van that was being stationed near a variety of Dunedin primary schools for about 35 minutes at a time during pick-up and drop-off.
"The numbers really surprised me — in a normal area it would take at least a week to reach the numbers that van is getting, probably even longer than that."
A hot spot was around the Brockville area, where the most tickets were issued.
A big day was May 3 when 143 vehicles drove past the camera and 106 were over the limit.
Those drivers would receive infringement notices.
"Instead of every third car speeding, it was more like two out of three cars were over the limit."
A trend spotted by Snr Sgt Hemmingsen was motorists spotting the van and slowing down from 50kmh to about 40kmh.
"Slowing down to 40kmh isn’t slowing down to the speed limit, they are acknowledging the zone, but they’re not slowing down enough, so they’re still getting a ticket."
The campaign was part of an effort to keep the areas around schools safe.
"Children are unpredictable and they’ll just run across the road at a moments notice.
A lot more damage was done when a child was hit at 50kmh than when travelling at 30kmh, and at the lower speeds it was a lot easier to spot the child and stop in time.
"We will be continuing to ticket people speeding in these zones."
After public consultation last year, Dunedin school zones and their limits were set at 30kmh.
