Steven Joyce

Wellington, Feb 9 NZPA - Drones that trick motorists using radar detectors into slowing down are just another method of speed control, Transport Minister Steven Joyce says.

"I just think the whole thing is a bit of a cat and mouse game," Mr Joyce told reporters this morning.

"You have the radars, the radar detectors, the radar detector detectors and now the radar detector radars. I think the safety answer would be for people to just not to speed."

The New Zealand Herald reported that old police radars, renamed drones and each worth $150, were being used around the country. The drones emit a beam which activates radar detectors in cars, fooling motorists into thinking they are entering a monitored speed zone and slowing them down.

They are being used by the police, councils and the Transport Agency.

The Accident Compensation Corporation supplied them to local authorities and the Transport Agency which installed and operated them.

ACC said it had distributed about 70 drones at a cost of $10,000 and said they had reduced the speed of motorists.

The old radars have been mounted on power poles at up to 70 sites around the country and some had been bought by school bus companies to slow motorists around schools.

Officials believed one in 10 motorists had radar detectors.

Last year ACC said claims relating to speed were worth at least $81 million.

Radar detectors are banned in Australia and Mr Joyce is awaiting advice from officials on a proposed ban in New Zealand.

Mr Joyce said he did not know about the drones until this morning but said he understood why agencies would use them.

"If you don't want to be picked up by the radars or the various other methods that are being talked about then the easiest way is not to be speeding... There's people who want to avoid being detected and of course it's natural enough that the agencies are seeking to actually make sure that people don't speed. If people don't speed that's a good thing."