Wairarapa police crack down on speeding | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

A lower 4km/h speed tolerance is being put in place thisWaitangi Weekend by police, which will continue until the end of February.

Masterton Senior Sergeant Carolyn Watson said it was a reminder to holidaying drivers to be careful.

"Drivers just need to remember to take breaks if they're on long drives, slow down, and be patient on the road," she said.

She also reminded drivers to slow down around schools.

Police Acting Superintendent Rob Morgan said lowering the tolerance had made a real difference to the number of deaths on roads over holiday periods.

"We want to take steps to influence behaviour over this period by focussing on those factors considered most influential during the last holiday period, namely alcohol and speed.

"We are seeing that the holiday periods that have the lower speed tolerance have had less crashes and a smaller percentage of drivers exceeding 100km/h." The lower road speed tolerance was introduced following the Easter holidays in 2010, when 12 people died on roads throughout the country.

The lowered tolerance was first used on Queen's Birthday weekend in 2010 and is now used in all holiday periods. Queen's Birthday Weekend last year was the first road fatality-free holiday in New Zealand since records began in 1951.

Police said that February has the third highest proportion of speed-related crashes in the year, which is why they have elected to keep the limit in place until the end of the month.

The last time Waitangi Day fell on a Monday was in 2006, when there were five fatal crashes and 18 serious crashes recorded.

This year so far, there have been 29 fatal crashes, resulting in 35 deaths.