Constable Richard Brough pulls over a motorist for failure to use indicators correctly at the Daysh/High St roundabout in Avalon, Lower Hutt. Police are cracking down on poor driving behaviour at roundabouts.

Police have started early handing picture cards to drivers who fail to indicate correctly at roundabouts.

Officers had planned to start targeting drivers at Lower Hutt roundabouts this week, but after The Dominion Post reported the two-week campaign police decided to head out early while it was fresh in driver's minds.



Officers have already stopped more than 50 drivers failing to follow the road rules.



READ MORE: Police crackdown as drivers fail to signal at roundabouts



Police sergeant Rodger Hough said officers had already handed out "plenty" of picture cards teaching people when and how to indicate.



They had been "getting a lot of blank expressions" to their advice so the old saying of "a picture speaks a thousand words" seemed to be ringing true.



The emphasis was on educating drivers not handing out infringement notices.

"But it's not just a Lower Hutt problem. It's everybody's problem with roundabouts, it's nationwide."

JARED NICOLL/FAIRFAX NZ Traffic driving the roundabout at the Waterloo Rd and Queens Dr intersection in Lower Hutt CBD.

The campaign came on the back of figures compiled by Hutt City Council that showed seven out of 10 drivers going straight through a roundabout were not indicating before exiting.

Drivers turning right were slightly better, but most people were still not signalling correctly.



Petone driving instructor Sarah McPhee said older drivers – many of whom may have sat their licences decades ago – were worse than younger ones who had grown up with the rules instilled.



"It's the older generation that are not in the habit of indicating.

"Sometimes they just don't get it, and sometimes its just laziness and people have fallen into bad habits."

The basic rule of thumb was "you sometimes indicate going in but you always indicate going off".

Intersections and roundabout crashes were a significant factor in crash statistics in Lower Hutt, which has 53 roundabouts.

There were 64 crashes at roundabouts in 2014. Four people were seriously injured and 12 suffered minor injuries.