NZ Police and Waka Kotahi will be out in force this winter ski holiday season, checking that vehicles driving in alpine areas are up to safety standards.

Operation Hannah is a multi-site operation targeting all vehicles, but commercial passenger service vehicles in particular such as buses and vans, to ensure they are safe to drive on mountainous roads.

During the July school holidays, specialist Police and district staff, and teams from Waka Kotahi will be at the major ski fields checking vehicles are in a safe condition, compliant and being operated in a safe manner.

A deployment of the operation in June found there was 'still some room for improvement”, says Inspector Mike Brooklands, manager of Police's Commercial Vehicle Safety Team.

Inspector Brooklands says while more than 90 per cent of passenger vehicles inspected were compliant, action did need to be taken against 15 of the 171 vehicles stopped.

'The vast majority of operators are doing the right thing, but a few need to up their game when it comes to maintaining their fleet and educating staff.

'There were 18 faults detected in 14 vehicles, which really isn't good enough. It was pleasing, however, that no brake defects were identified in any large passenger vehicles.”

There was also a lack of adequate attention to logbooks in some cases, with 10 infringement notices and eight warning issued.

In addition, police found that 44 drivers did not know about the Alpine Code of Practice, which was established by the Bus and Coach Association in 2018 to improve passenger safety in alpine areas.

'We want everyone operating passenger vehicles, from drivers up to company managers, to take their responsibilities seriously. This is about ensuring the travelling public are as safe as possible at all times, and we all have a part to play in making sure everyone gets to their destination safe and sound.”

Operation Hannah is named after 11-year-old Hannah Francis, who was a passenger on a bus travelling on the Tūroa ski field road in 2018 and was tragically killed when the bus crashed after a brakes failure.

The operation focuses on improving vehicle safety in the alpine environment and work-related road safety through road safety prevention, compliance and education.

NZ Police has permission from Hannah's family to undertake this operation in her name.