A long-time speed enforcement advocate got a shock on Monday evening when a car crashed into the corner of his house.
Zane Edhouse lives on the corner of State Highway 2 [SH2] and Boundary Rd in Featherston, and for years he has pleaded with the police to strictly enforce the speed limit on the approach into the town.
On Monday at about 11pm just as he was sitting down for a cup of tea, a car fleeing police crashed through his fence.
“I went into my bedroom, and boom! Everything in the house exploded, and I was like, ‘What the f ***!’ There was s*** everywhere, and there was a car there with two guys sitting in it,” Edhouse said.
“They were two 18-year-olds, and they were sitting in the car like absolute stunned mullets.”
Police said when they sighted the speeding vehicle on SH2 heading to Featherston on Monday evening, they did not initiate a pursuit and instead followed the car at road speed.
Edhouse said the speeding car had attempted to turn into Boundary Rd, but it was going too fast and crashed through the fence, then bounced off the corner of his house.
Police confirmed no injuries were reported.
“I went out and said, ‘You bastards better be f***ing dead because I’m going kill the both of you.’”
Edhouse said they must have been travelling at about 120kmh and had been going faster
when they were on the road.
“If they’d gone either six inches left or right, they would have hit this big massive stump, and that would have just stopped them dead in their tracks,” he said.
“Or if they’d gone another metre or two another way, they would have ended up with the bay window in the house taking their heads off through the windscreen.”
The section of SH2 at the edge of Featherston recently had its speed limit reduced from 70kmh to 50kmh, but Edhouse doesn’t think driver behaviour has changed.
“People are doing near 100kmh in the 50kmh zone 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.
He said the police enforcement only works when they are there, and the only real solution would be a permanent speed camera at the entrance to Featherston.
“The cops have been good doing the blitzes, but as soon as they go, it’s back to normal in 30 seconds with cars speeding past.”
Waka Kotahi NZTA will be taking over the operation of speed cameras from police in the future as part of the transport agency’s ‘Road to Zero’ strategy.
It is currently deciding on the locations of where it will install new cameras.
Changes to the speed limits have little or no effect on drivers who ignore them. Nor will cameras have any immediate effect, as anything they do is after the event anyway. Waka Kotahi is driven by an impossible to achieve, ideological goal.
This seems to be a NZ wide problem ..Sadly police are dammed if the do and so get the easier targets like 10km hour over in town. Fair enough too but they need better judgement of character to whom will listen to a warning and who deserves a ticket and demerit points. As for bigger crime like 130 km/h plus i saw coming into a 70km/h area this morning .. red hilux so fast i couldnt read the number plate. The court imposed penalties do not match the resources required to prosecute these offenders. Maybe time for over crowded police cell time to spark fear into people? Note police cell time and prison are different.