Police are focusing on vehicle safety on beaches following an incident in September when four people died in a crash.
Reckless driving and burn outs are the types of activities Police are trying to stop.
“Conditions here can change really quickly, you might hit the soft sand, your wheels dig in that could cause a roll over, the big sweeping waves, buried objects. We do know though if we can keep the speed down on the beach everybody is going to be safer” says Mark Fergus the Area Commander at Rodney Police.
Muriwai beach on Auckland's west coast is a popular driving area with over 45,000 vehicles accessing Coast Road in the last 12 months. Signage and speed limits are in place but recently police have noticed an increase of unlawful activity.
According to Area Commander Mark Fergus, “Today we're checking that everybody has got a warrant of fitness, rego, a driver's license, also that they know how to drive safely on the beach.”
The joint safety operation with Auckland Park Rangers, New Zealand Defence Force, local Iwi and Ministry of Fisheries officers was sparked following the death of four people in September here at Muriwai when their 4WD flipped.
Police will be working vigilantly to ensure no more deaths on our beaches this summer.