It's hypocritical for the government to condemn speeding when its own drivers break the law on a regular basis, says the car review website dogandlemon.com
Commenting after GPS records showed that the Crown limousines exceed speed limits on a large percentage of trips, editor Matthew-Wilson says:
“The police and the government are quick to blame speeding for the road toll, yet their own adherence to the speed limits is patchy at best.”
Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner, says it’s wrong for anyone to claim GPS speed records aren’t accurate.
“Most studies have suggested that GPS speed recording is reliably accurate, provided the vehicle is in a straight line and that there are plenty of satellites overhead. While the GPS speed readings may be vary in accuracy over a trip, their average is generally more accurate than the car’s own speedo.”
Matthew-Wilson says he’s comfortable with the Crown limousines occasionally drifting over the speed limit. However, he’s “very unhappy” with some of the high speeds recorded in the government GPS data for those vehicles.
“Few roads in New Zealand are suitable for really high speeds. It’s simply not safe. It’s also totally unacceptable that we appear to have one law for ordinary motorists, and another for police and government.”
“I don’t mind if the Crown limousine drivers and the police are excused for occasionally drifting over the speed limit – we all do it from time to time. What I do mind is the police ticketing thousands of ordinary motorists for minor speeding offences, then excusing their own officers and the Crown limousine drivers for the same kinds of behaviour.”
• In 2015, a covert operation by TV3 found that many police cars were regularly in excess of the speed limits, without lawful excuse.
