Tauranga Police's driver distraction campaign has been put on hold following eight crashes in a 24 hour period.

From 8am Wednesday to 8am Thursday, police have been dealing with crashes which all could have been avoided if people were paying attention and obeying the road rules, says Western Bay of Plenty road policing acting Senior Sergeant Wayne Hunter.

Two riders were knocked down yesterday by vehicle drivers failing to give way, say police.

This is also supposed to be the week Tauranga Police were to run the driver distraction campaign warning drivers of the dangerous of distractions on the road.

'We haven't had a chance to do much about it anyway, we have been so busy.

Wayne says most of the crashes were at intersections, involving people not paying attention to their surrounds.

'A school bus had a crash. The driver had a sneezing or coughing fit, and by the time he opened his eyes, all the vehicles in front had stopped. The bus rear ended a couple of cars.”

There was also a car versus scooter yesterday morning on Grenada Street.

Wayne says the car failed to give way to scooter. The 64-year-old on scooter taken to Tauranga Hospital with minor injuries.

'Car versus tree on Topaz Drive, and a light truck and scooter crash on Cambridge Road. The light truck failed to give way to scooter on roundabout.”

The rider was taken to Tauranga Hospital with potentially serious injuries.

The Cambridge Road/Waihi Road roundabout accident at about 1.40pm was followed by the bus versus car collision at the Fraser Street/Chadwick Road roundabout about 4.20pm.

Wayne says there was also a car versus car on State Highway 29A Maungatapu. He says the driver braked hard on mud tyres and slid into the car in front.

'A young driver lost control on Brown Road, crashing into Audi which had almost stopped. Too fast for the conditions,” says Wayne.

'Later on, a car was going too fast going up the hill Warner Road and crashed into bank. On Turret Road, a driver was using mobile phone, left road and hit lamp post.

'And that's just from the last 24 hours. People are not obeying the rules, not giving way to the people they are supposed to.”

This crash of SH2 today happened shortly before 10am.

There was another crash on SH2 at Te Puna this morning where a car left the road and just before Snodgrass Road. No other details are available at this stage.