For the last month, police in New Zealand have been stopping motorcyclists to talk to them about their driving habits. The goal of the campaign was to promote safe riding, encourage helmet use, and discourage drunk driving. The survey found that most motorcyclists were responsible drivers, although New Zealand police said that they could slow down a bit.
The police in New Zealand talked to 645 motorcyclists during the "Month of Motorcycles" campaign. The campaign found that nearly a quarter of the riders (153) were driving too fast, 29 had driver licence issues, 19 had faults with their vehicles, and a few had problems with registration.
"We were pleased to find that on the whole riders are showing responsibility in regard to the condition of their vehicles, and most are driving with the appropriate class of licence," said the officer in charge of Highway Patrol for Central District, Senior Sergeant Kris Burbery. "The percentage of those spoken to who were riding at excess speed is disappointing and shows more work is needed to educate riders. Riding at speed increases the risk of a crash and evidence is clear that in a high speed crash a motorcyclist has a far greater chance of being seriously injured or killed. Overall, however, we are encouraged by the results of the campaign."
The campaign also notes that not a single driver was found to be drinking.
"The majority of riders were quite appreciative of our focus on motorcycles and we had positive feedback from our interactions with riders around safety," Burbery continued. "It helps us as police officers to learn a bit more about the issues riders face and with an understanding of those issues we can work to identify ways to prevent tragedies involving motorcycles."
