Tougher penalties will be put in place for boy racers and fleeing drivers as the Government announces a suite of stronger measures, including a lower threshold for vehicle destruction and increased police powers.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop and Police Minister Mark Mitchell were joined by Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell to announce the crackdown this morning.
Bishop said current penalties for anti-social or intimidating driving were not strong enough to deter the “appalling behaviour”.
“Kiwis are sick of seeing these idiot drivers putting everyone around them at risk, so we’re taking action through a range of much tougher penalties.”
A presumptive sentence of vehicle destruction or forfeiture would be enacted for those who flee police, street racers, intimidating convoys and owners who fail to identify offending drivers.
This would ensure courts order the vehicle destroyed or forfeited unless it would be “manifestly unjust, or cause extreme hardship to the offender or undue hardship to any other person”.
In 2009, then-police minister Judith Collins was dubbed Crusher Collins for introducing similar legislation, which allows for cars to be confiscated and destroyed, but only after a third illegal street racing offence had been committed.
The existing road closure power for police would also be expanded to include all public and private areas accessible to the public by vehicle.
An offence for failing to comply with a direction to leave or not enter a closed area would be established, with an associated penalty of a $1000 fine. The infringement fee for making excessive noise from or within a vehicle would also rise from $50 to $300.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell said the bill would give police new powers to manage “intimidating” convoys and illegal dirt bike gatherings through the ability to close roads and by compelling people to leave or face fines.
“Anti-social road use and illegal street racing have no place in New Zealand,” he said.
“Our message is clear: if you want drive dangerously, face the consequences.”
Tapsell said the council was “very grateful” to the Government for “listening to the call from our community” and her district council.
“We want it to stop, and this action from these two is actually going to do that.”
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers said he was confident the new offences and penalties would provide officers with more tools to target unlawful road-user behaviour.
“Having the ability to close roads in anticipation of this behaviour, for example, is a welcome tool in the toolbox.
“Police and communities are concerned about dangerous and anti-social road user behaviour, and I’m confident these additional measures will go a long way to deter, and therefore prevent, these behaviours.”
Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said proper resourcing of frontline police would be more successful than the policies announced today.
“They should have learned by now, it’s a failed policy. All of these measures introduced last time did not work, the Government has not learned from its own mistakes.”
The new legislation would be introduced in mid-2025.
