Tauranga police caught 20 motorists breaching stop sign rules at two different intersections in the city on Monday resulting in $3000 worth of tickets being issued in an hour.

Two police officers were stationed at the intersection of Durham Street and Spring Street for an hour on Monday morning.

Another two officers patrolled the Christopher Road/ 11th Avenue intersection at the same time.

About 10 motorists were caught breaching the stop sign rules at each of the intersections.

The drivers were each given a $150 fine and an explanation of the correct stop sign procedures.

'When we push the intersections and give out as many tickets as we can, the crash rate in Tauranga tends to go down,” says Sergeant Lester Polglase.

He says about 30 per cent of the crashes in the city are caused by motorists flouting the rules at intersections.

'Abiding by stop sign rules has the same priority as keeping left on the road.”

'Sooner or later it's going to bite drivers on the bum.

Tauranga police will be regularly monitoring intersections across the city.

During the Monday blitz, Lester says they were lenient to a number of motorists.

'It got to the point where people were almost stopping.

'We gave them a warning that they must come to a complete stop and that the next time they would get a ticket.”

Most of the drivers that were caught were 'blatantly” breaching the rules, says Lester.