See that cardboard police car, thats mine thats mine that is!

I work for Fulton Hogan in Nelson and the police car has been used on the jobs I run.

Firstly, what people must realise is that they, as motorists, only spend 20-30 seconds in roadworks as they pass through. For the guys who work for me, they are in the roadworks for 8-9 hours a day. So safe traffic speeds are a must for us.

The cunning plan Mike Gibney has is to put the cardboard car on the site one day, and liase with the police so they put a real car & policeman in the same place the next day.....or do they, you never know & thats the key.

The photo is on a site at Hira (just north of Nelson). The day after the photo the police were there in person. They pinged motorists to the tune of $1,800 in one hour and ten minutes.

At the end of last week, we were working on a site on the Korere straight - 600m long in the middle of a 2km long straight. The cutout car was at the north end, drivers cursed at being "fooled" and quite often sped through the rest of the site at roundabout 50-70 kmh in a 30kmh restriction. What they didnt realise was that there was a real police car at the other end. Ker-ching $$$$$ for the police and plenty of de-merit points for the motorists.

Another sign we have is linked to s speed gun & it displays your speed as you approach it and also tells you the $ value of the fine you would get.

On a slightly lighter note, a Britz rental camper came through the works at 60kmh, we tried to slow them down because we had dug out 100mm of road and it was quite a drop. No, they sped on and hit the pothole at full tilt, the guy on traffic control at the other end of the works says they stopped and mopped the tea from the dashboard and windscreen along with changing their trousers. That'll bloody teach 'em! eh?

Its Nelson anniverary weekend and its piddling down - just like home. Bugger.

Cheers

Nick