Southern council cars clocked speeding 1400 times

The driver of a council work car clocked at 145km/h may never have been identified because the system didn't log the person behind the wheel.

Gore District Council revealed the incident was one of 165 speeding violations where people drove 10km/h or more over the speed limit during a six-month period.

Both Southland District Council and Invercargill City Council have also released information on speeding in council cars, showing limits were broken by at least 40km/h at both councils.

Across the three councils, drivers were recorded exceeding the speed limit by at least 10km/h more than 1400 times during a six-month period.

A spokesperson for Gore District Council said despite most of the council’s cars being part of a pool, there was no system in place to officially log who was driving a vehicle.

“However, if we become aware of an overspeed, and can identify the driver, then a conversation is had with them in the first instance and if it continues, further action can be taken.”

The council would not provide comment on individual situations, saying disciplinary action was an employment matter.

It did not say whether it identified the driver clocked at 145km/h.

At Invercargill City Council, group manager finance and assurance Patricia Christie said there were 10 fleet vehicles fitted with speed monitoring software.

In the six months to the end of September — the period Local Democracy Reporting requested information from the three councils — there were 633 exceedances of over 10km/h, Christie said.

The fastest speed was 41 km/h over the limit.

“It is council’s policy to work with staff and educate them prior to taking disciplinary action,” she said.

Southland District Council logged 615 speeding incidents of vehicles travelling at 10km/h or more over the limit.

There were two instances of the limit being broken by 40km/h at the entrance to towns.

The maximum speed recorded was 131km/h on a state highway which was sustained for a 29 second period, “consistent with an overtaking manoeuvre”, a spokesperson said.

“Discussions have been held with staff members. At this time no disciplinary actions have been undertaken”.

In September, an Environment Southland report revealed 856 speeding events for a three-month period to June where drivers had gone over the limit by more than 10km/h.

The fastest speed recorded during that period was 126 km/h.

Organisational failure saw Environment Canterbury fail to reprimand chairperson Peter Scott after he clocked almost 700 speeding incidents.

Scott, who stepped down from the role, exceeded the speed limit in a council-provided car 678 times since January, with a top speed of 157km/h.