By Kim Choe
It has been revealed ACC has been using trickery to slow down drivers with a need for speed. They have installed old police radars in trouble spots to trigger a false warning to cars with radar detectors that police are nearby.
But in a new twist, it may be police who will now try and pull a double con.
It took one very observant gadget geek to detect ACC's cunning plan to slow down speeding motorists.
"I drive along this road fairly regularly, and a couple of months ago I noticed I was getting a strong alert on my radar detector and there was no police car out, and this happened every time I was driving along this stretch of road," says Bob Prangnell.
A quick look around revealed an old police radar, known as a drone, mounted on a power pole. Seventy of these have been installed around the country in the past year to make drivers with radar detectors think the police are nearby.
"I think it's quite a clever idea actually," says Mr Prangnell. "Especially my initial concern was that they might be spending a lot of money on this, but it seems that they're not."
In fact, the whole programme has only cost $7000, a small price says ACC, considering one crash causing a serious injury can cost it $50,000.
But now that the ruse has been exposed, it might have lost some of its usefulness.
"I'm not sure how effective it will be, because people that drive along the road regularly will obviously know it's there, but people that are driving on roads they don't know will maybe have an effect," says Mr Prangnell.
But ACC says there are other ways the drones can be used. It has already had calls from school bus operators in Palmerston North and Christchurch who want to install them in their vehicles.
There could also be a real sting in this for speeding drivers. ACC told 3 News it has been contacted by police who want to know where the drones are located so they can station real police cars there.
3 News