Locals are fed up that dangerous driving and accidents on west Auckland's Muriwai beach continue to happen despite warnings from authorities.
On Saturday afternoon, seven people were injured after a vehicle rolled after reportedly being hit by a wave, roughly 25km north of the Muriwai Beach surf club.
- Seven injured after vehicle rolled on Auckland's Muriwai beach
- Couple killed at Muriwai were refugee parents
Brock Howell has been driving on the beach for 30 years, but he knows it can often be dangerous.
"Sort of ruins it for everyone else, us people that know what we're doing," said Mr Howell, while another driver said it was important to keep to the speed limit, stay on the hard sections of the beach, and out of the water.
The Ministry of Transport say between 2013 and 2017, there were 75 car crashes on New Zealand beaches, with nine people killed and 47 seriously injured.
Among those accidents was one at Muriwai in 2015, which killed four people.
The accident on Saturday was on the same strip of sand and has sent a teenager and child to hospital.
DT Driving Training General Manager, Darren Cottingham, said the problem is often when vehicles change direction quickly on the sand.
"You can dig in and that can cause your vehicle to roll out, so ideally you wanna keep your speed down and not change direction too rapidly," said Mr Cottingham.
Beaches are legally roads, which means the same road rules apply. But police are working with local councils to tackle issues that come with people using beaches dangerously.
"It's really a shared road, if you have that environment in the town you'd have a 10km/h speed limit, but we are allowed to do 30 or 50 or sometimes even more on a beach," said Mr Cottingham.
Muriwai beach is policed, and special driving permit must be carried at all times.
"All you gotta do is jump online and fill it out, it's for free. Whack it in the glovebox and you're good," said one local.
Because as Muriwai locals know all too well, it takes just one person to ruin it for everyone.
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