Acting Sergeant Graham Perkins is urging drivers to be mindful on the winter roads, to be familiar with their vehicles and keep up to date on weather and road conditions.

“With the recent cold snap, a lot of people are getting caught out,” he said.

“Having familiarity with your vehicle and knowing when and how to put on chains will definitely get you out of trouble if you are caught in those situations.”

On Wednesday (August 2) there were small slips overnight and even though Aspiring Highways did “a mighty job” of fixing the damage, drivers needed to be aware and drive to the conditions, Graham said.

A truck and trailer unit had gotten stuck going up Shingle Hill because of lack of traction, and the driver of a rental vehicle was subsequently involved in a nose-to-tail accident. Nobody was injured but being more aware could have prevented the crash.

“If you’re heading for Queenstown for your weekend of fun, have a wee look ahead for what the weather is going to do.”

Drink-drivers were still a problem on Central Otago roads, Graham said, and they were likely to be caught.

On the enforcement side of their public safety role, local police had executed a few search warrants recently, with assistance from tactical teams in Dunedin to ensure public and officer safety.

“That has all come about from information to police provided by members of the public, or it’s through officer inquisitiveness. They see something and they do something about it.

“The deeper you dig, the more you find. We have opened up a group of people who are dealing drugs, supplying drugs, and people who are buying the drugs as well.

“We have put a hole in the drug scene around Alexandra, but we still know it’s there.”

Remembering one of their own, police officers from throughout Central Otago and surrounding areas competed against residents of Ranfurly and the greater Otago community late last month in the Peter Umbers Memorial Curling Competition.

Senior Constable Umbers was the sole charge officer in Ranfurly in May 1990 when he was called out to an armed robbery of the Poolburn Hotel. After radioing in that he was about to pull over a vehicle believed to have been used in the robbery, the constable went silent. 

Police and ambulance crews dispatched to the area found him dead beside his vehicle.

The annual competition in his memory pits locals against officers from Alexandra, Cromwell, Queenstown, Dunedin, Invercargill, and all the local stations like Omakau and Ranfurly, Graham said.

“It’s a way for police and members of the community to come together,” Graham said.

“Once again, the police lost,” he said. “But it’s a great time for everyone to come together and just relax, and remember someone.”