5 km/hour Speed Tolerance in School Area

When I had a driver licence test 5 year ago, I sure remember the examiner told me that there is a 10km/hour speed limit tolerance in some situation. However, what I got just today in my mailbox was an infringement notice asking me to pay $30 due to the exceeded speed limit of 6km/hour in the area of 50km/hour speed limit.



So, why is that? As a good citizen, I really want to know what I have done wrong. It's not about the 30 bucks, but it's about knowing my mistake.

After browsing the NZ Police website, I found one updated rule that can show my mistake. This updated rule is actually part of "Speed Kills Kids Programme".

Police Speed Enforcement Policy

The current Police speed policy specifies that:

• Drivers of vehicles other than heavy motor vehicles who exceed the speed limit by less than 11km/h will not normally be issued with an infringement notice providing their speed does not present a risk to public safety in the prevailing circumstances.
• These principles do not constitute a mandate for drivers to exceed the speed limit. In some circumstances exceeding the speed limit by less than 11km/h will pose road safety risks.

Speed Kills Kids Programme

In the vicinity of schools, particularly during the high-risk morning and afternoon periods, a significant risk is posed to school children by speeding drivers and it is considered that a lower enforcement tolerance by both speed cameras and staff is critical to reducing child pedestrian casualties. Therefore Police will strictly enforce a 5km/hour tolerance within 250 meters on each side of school boundaries to counter a quantifiable and publicly obvious road safety risk.

This initiative provides a sound and logical way in which to stimulate public debate around the impact of travel speed on pedestrian injury severity and to reduce the road safety risks to children travelling to and from school

As can be seen in the infringement notice above, the camera snapped me just in front of St. Pauls School. My exceeded limit is 6km/hour, whilst the enforced limit under that programme is 5km/hour.

But, take a closer look at the time, it's 16:29 hrs. The school normally finishes at 15:00 and kids may walk around that area, just say, until 16:00 hrs.

At 16:29, there are no school kids on the road. Most of them may play Playstation or watch movie/tv at home.

Perhaps, some of the kids have working parents and still walk around the school waiting to be picked up. Offices finish at 17:00, so the kids have 2 hours waiting. But, please don't play around the road, it's dangerous, just go inside the school field.

Or perhaps, somebody just forgot to turn the camera off. However, I will pay.