Police say Crown Range blitz drivers were 50/50 locals/tourists

Crux has asked police if the 32 people given tickets for bad driving on the Crown range yesterday were mainly locals or visitors.

The answer is that it was "a roughly 50-50 split between locals and tourists infringing."

The result matches local anecdotal evidence that tourists are often confused or intimidated by the Crown Range with some locals blaming their own poor driving on frustration with the visitors.

Police stopped a large number of drivers yesterday (December 12) following an operation targeting high risk driving on the Crown Range and Cardrona Valley roads.

22 infringements were issued yesterday (Dec 12) to drivers needlessly crossing the centre line and carrying out unsafe passing manoeuvres, with two drivers stopped travelling nearly twice the speed limit on the wrong side of the road through Cardrona Village.

Ten further infringements were issued for a range of offences including speeding, drivers using their mobile phones and failing to wear their seatbelts.

Police are urging motorists to be patient, and drive to the conditions.

Data released to Crux by the NZ Transport Agency in May this year showed a total of 314 car crashes on the Crown Range Road in the last ten years, five of them fatal. 130 injuries were recorded.

Here is the data we received from NZTA earlier this year.