Speeding tourists, unrestrained toddlers: The chaos one highway cop faces daily
Friday, 2 January 2026
This story was first published in September, 2025 and has been republished for summer reading.
On a snowy scenic highway to Queenstown, Senior Constable Daniel Bartlett sees it all: speeding tourists, wild crashes, even a toddler driving a rental. He tells Hamish McNeilly what it’s like on SH8 — one of NZ’s most dangerous roads.
It’s a blue sky day - snowcapped mountains, sun shining - but Daniel Bartlett is not there for the view.
The senior constable regularly patrols part of State Highway 8, a scenic route popular with tourists travelling between Aoraki/Mt Cook and Queenstown.
Bartlett is one of two Ōamaru-based officers who patrol the area.
They issued more than 2500 infringement notices for the year ending June 30, an overwhelming majority to foreign drivers on SH8.
Statistics from the Ministry of Transport show that Otago had the second highest rate of fatal/injury crashes involving foreign tourists between 2019-2023, just behind Waikato.
The Mackenzie Country and Queenstown Lakes areas, through which SH8 runs, had the first and second highest percentage of crashes involving foreign tourists, over the same period.
High-profile crashes include a triple fatality near Tekapo at Easter 2024.
Bartlett says it’s often possible to tell which international flight had landed at Christchurch Airport hours earlier by the tourists he pulls over.
Many rent a vehicle and head straight for Aoraki/Mt Cook - a four-hour drive - before going to Queenstown another three hours away. Fatigue, changeable weather and road conditions can present a challenge.
“With the ice during the winter time, a lot of tourists don’t realise how dangerous it is… and they don’t slow down for it.”
Distraction is also an issue, with the spectacular scenery leading some drivers to weave all over the road. “They say they were just looking at the view.”
Bartlett, who is in his 23rd year as a police officer, moved from Northland to Ōamaru several years ago to work in road policing.
The most obvious difference is the weather, with Otago often gripped by ice and snow.
Late last month Bartlett spotted a rental car weaving all over the road at 127kph.
He was stunned to see a toddler standing on the driver’s lap driving the vehicle.
“I saw his little head bobbing around and I thought, ‘What the hell is that?’ I’ve never seen that before.
“The driver knew it was wrong because he threw the kid back in the back seat when I stopped him.”
That child was one of five in the vehicle, all of whom were unrestrained.
“If that car had crashed, there could have been five dead kids.”
The foreign driver was issued with three infringement notices for speeding, unrestrained children and carrying passengers in an unsafe manner.
Another time he went to pull over a campervan for speeding and it spun out, “doing two 360s in front of me”.
This month a driver in a Toyota Corolla was clocked at 180kph.
Bartlett estimates that overseas tourists account for around 90% of the drivers he pulls over.
Some claim to have no knowledge of New Zealand speed limits.
If a driver is clocked at a “crazy speed”, they can expect Bartlett to ring their rental company, which often leads to the rental company asking him to take the keys.
If that driver doesn’t have another licensed driver with them, that means a major disruption to their holiday plans.
Bartlett recalls dropping off tourists in Omarama who went to call an Uber after having their licence and vehicle stripped.
That’s when he had to explain they were “in the middle of nowhere”.
He has been forced to swerve off the road several times to avoid oncoming cars overtaking another vehicle.
He remembers when his marked patrol car was overtaken by a car full of foreign tourists “doing 133kph into oncoming traffic”.
Most drivers understood when they were in the wrong, says Bartlett, who often uses Google Translate to overcome language barriers.
Bartlett told Stuff he enjoyed the job, particularly educating the public on road safety.
And educate he does, because in just four hours one Tuesday in early September, he issued 26 infringement notices to drivers on SH8, including:
10.42am, he clocked a vehicle allegedly driven by a male tourist doing 160kph in a 100kph zone. His licence was suspended, and he was summonsed to appear in the Oamaru District Court.
11.10am, stopped a campervan driven by a 35-year-old male tourist. That vehicle, which had a speed limit of 90kph, was clocked at 131kph. The man’s driver’s licence was suspended for 28 days, he was fined $510 and his Maui vehicle returned to the rental company.
12.40pm, 34-year-old male with a New Zealand driver's license was caught travelling at 127kph in a 100kph zone, with an unrestrained baby and two unrestrained adults in the back seat. The driver got a $530 infringement notice, and the adult passengers were issued infringement notices for not wearing seatbelts.
1.47pm, a 63-year-old male tourist was caught speeding at 131kph in a 100kph zone. Bartlett issued him with a $300 infringement notice.
Senior Sergeant Karl Hemmingsen praised the work of Bartlett and Senior Constable Helen Jones in patrolling SH8.
That road was a “recipe for disaster” with tourists, many of whom were fatigued, driving on unfamiliar roads in unfamiliar conditions.
“When they get a crash there, it is often a big one.”
Matt Harvey, chief operating officer for Tourism Holdings Ltd, the largest global provider of motorhome/campervan rentals, said foreign drivers were given information before arrival in New Zealand, and on arrival talked through the road rules.
All drivers have to fill in a drive safe form, which includes a quiz to test their knowledge.
He said campervans could only travel at 90kph, and featured reminders inside to remind motorists of that restriction.
Anyone caught at excessive speed would have their contract cancelled.
Campervans are GPS-tracked, and any erratic driving, including harsh cornering, braking and speeding, would see the customer contacted.
An AA road safety spokesperson said many of the millions of tourists who visit New Zealand each year drive while here and “understanding our road rules and how to behave is vital”.
While visiting drivers are responsible for a small proportion of crashes, in tourist regions like Central Otago there will be a greater proportion who may not be used to the rules, customs and conditions on our roads, the spokesperson said.