Comedy

'The Missus' chat was distracting': Police reveal NZers' most out the gate excuses for speeding

"A wasp was on the accelerator pedal."

Getting caught doing something dumb sucks, and sometimes people will shift the blame to anyone and anything to try and get out of it.

That's exactly what happened when these Kiwis got pulled over for speeding. New Zealand Police told 1News the craziest excuses they've heard from people they caught hooning it on the roads.

"Summer's here, and as part of our continued effort to remind drivers there is no excuse to speed, police are highlighting the worst excuses for speeding road policing staff in each district have come across," they said.

A speeding Aucklander told cops "he had just washed his car and was drying it off". Police responded that "it was an expensive blow dry."

Another person from the City of Sails had a truly Kiwi excuse, saying their "jandal had slipped," to which police responded: "We hate it when that happens".

One driver denied his high speed, explaining that their "speedometer was out". He was doing 148km/h in a 100km/h zone.

In Northland, someone whipped out the classic bathroom excuse. "The driver told police they were a vegan and had needed to use the toilet," Police shared. "They'd eaten too many berries and 'been' three times in the last hour."

Cops were told by a driver in the Central District that "a wasp was on the accelerator pedal and he'd stamped on it to kill it, which must have sped him up."

Another driver said they were running low on gas, so they "had to get to the service station quicker."

A loved one was supposedly the cause of another infringement, with the driver saying he was "distracted by his wife's talking."

Even the vehicle copped the blame in one instance. A driver in Wellington told cops his cruise control was set to 100, so there was nothing they could do about it.

These are all some great laughs, but speeding isn't a joke.

"In a crash, even when you're not at fault, speed remains the single biggest factor in whether you and your passengers walk away or are carried away," Police warn.

"There's nothing funny about attending a death on our roads."

You could spend your time dreaming up the perfect excuse, or you could just not be a dummy and drive to the speed limit - keep it cruisy this summer, fam.