The hundreds of hooning ‘boy racers’ who descended on the region on the evening of December 30 aside, the Christmas to New Year holiday period has been “relatively quiet” in Wairarapa from a police perspective.
It’s pleasing there’s been a low level of family harm reports over the past week or so, Wairarapa Police Senior Sergeant Gill Flower told the Times-Age, although unfortunately, such incidents traditionally tend to spike again in Wairarapa during January “when people realise how much they’ve over-spent over Christmas”.
Likewise, there have been few vehicle collisions and no serious injuries or deaths on the region’s roads, which Flower in part puts down to proactive road policing, including checkpoints, during this period.
Around 20 speeding tickets have been issued. As much as possible, Flower said, police took an education approach with speedsters, but anyone travelling more than 10kmh above the posted speed limit received an infringement notice.
There were only three to four “low-level” cases of drink driving, although even that was “more than we would like”.
Beyond that, the only other incidents that stood out on the police blotter for Flower were a stolen burnt-out car at Percy’s Reserve and a quadbike rolling on a beach at Cape Palliser early on Monday afternoon, which resulted in the rider breaking his collarbone.
As the holiday period draws to a close, however, Wairarapa police are acutely aware that there’s often a road fatality in the region over the next week or so, as increasing numbers of visitors begin making their way back to their respective homes.
As such, there will be more police on the roads in the coming days, while Flower had some words of advice for drivers.
“Be patient,” she said.
“Don’t drive tired or too far without taking rests.
“And please don’t take stupid risks in order to ‘make good time’. It’s just not worth it. What we all want is for everyone to get home safely.”
A very true 👍 comment.
Police are overwhelmed but officials will say all is ok.