A PACE car is being introduced on roads outside Redlands schools to slow speeding traffic.
Bayside patrol crime prevention coordinator Sergeant Chris Hebblethwaite said the white van – marked as a school zone pace car – would be used as early as next week.
Sergeant Hebblethwaite said motorists too often disobeyed school speed limits, with pace cars a practical and easy solution.
Pace cars are usually used on race tracks during motorsport events to slow vehicles behind them.
“It is for use in areas where its hard to do traditional methods of policing,” Sergeant Hebblethwaite.
“This is about providing a safety outcome and the end results is a reduction in speed.”
The pace van will be driven by Volunteers in Policing members outside schools in the South Brisbane policing district.
The vehicle – a white Hyundai iLoad van – is part of Queensland Police’s existing vehicle fleet but police volunteers will be trained on its use as a pace car.
Volunteers cannot enforce road rules like police but will drive on roads near schools at the 40 km/h speed limit.
“The school zone pace car provides an innovative way in which the Queensland Police Service can utilise our volunteers with a practical opportunity to reduce traffic offences and improve road safety outcomes in active school zones,” Sergeant Hebblethwaite said.
The concept was launched at a Coffee with a Cop event on Tuesday at Cleveland’s Library Square.
More than 200 people, including families with children, attended to check out police vehicles and a fire truck that were parked there.
The demonstration was part of Road Safety Week, which is held to promote good driver behaviour in a bid to stop road carnage.
Find more Queensland road rules here.
