Western Bay of Plenty motorists are urged to take extreme care at intersections this week as part of a road safety campaign aimed at educating drivers to stop at stop signs and traffic signals.

The Intersections Campaign runs until September 6 and highlights intersections in the Western Bay that have the highest crash risk rates.

Western Bay of Plenty road policing Senior Sergeant Ian Campion is urging motorists to keep to the road rules at intersections. Photo: File.

Western Bay of Plenty road policing Senior Sergeant Ian Campion says there were 18 infringements issued for vehicles failing to stop at the intersection of Omokoroa Road and State Highway 2 on Tuesday night.

And Ian says police staff could have issued double that number of infringements.

'Mostly they were vehicles turning from Omokoroa Road onto SH2,” he explains, 'which features as a high risk intersection and exits into a 100km area. This means the consequences of a collision is serious injury or worse.”

Ian says SH2 North from Bethlehem to Athenree is the highest risk highway in WBOP, with seven deaths in 2014 and two of the fatalities occurring at intersections.

He says there have been five fatalities on SH2 between Bethlehem and Athenree so far this year, with one of the accidents occurring at a driveway entrance.

Ian urges drivers to take extreme care at intersections and to stick to the road rules.

'Drivers should stop and only proceed when the way is clear,” he says. 'It's quite simple. You can't do a rolling stop.”

The infringement fee for failing to comply with a stop sign and breaching red or amber traffic signals is $150.

'The main consequence is that they will be involved in a collision,” adds Ian.