The penalty for driving while using a cellphone is an $80 fine and 20 demerit points. Since 2009, police have issued fines totalling $109,440 to drivers on Western Bay roads.
Bay of Plenty road policing manager Inspector Kevin Taylor said drivers failed to understand the danger involved with using a cellphone while driving and the practice had been a factor in several fatal crashes in the Bay of Plenty during the last few years.
"They don't associate that with being a risk until you crash, and then it's too late. It's a classic Kiwi attitude - it's someone else, not me."
Driving while using a phone was "dumb" and "didn't make sense", he said.
"It's not a clever thing to do, particularly taking your mind off the job at hand. There are only so many things you can concentrate on at the same time. Your concentration is elsewhere."
Cellphone-using drivers rarely argued when stopped by police.
"Most people don't have an excuse because they know they're caught," Mr Taylor said.
That included those making sneaky attempts to flout the law.
"Hands-free does not mean putting it on the speaker and throwing it on the dashboard," he said.
Most drivers were caught on the phone in urban areas, Mr Campion said, and he recommended that all drivers who insisted on talking on a cellphone in the car install a hands-free kit.
"Realistically it would be an extremely minimal amount of occasions where you have to answer a phone, reply, or look at a text, when driving," he said.
Owner of BOP Driving School Jeroen van der Beek agreed talking on a cellphone while driving was a "major distraction" particularly for learner drivers who were developing their skills.
"It's quite a full-time job [driving], particularly in the early days," he said. He encouraged young drivers to turn off or mute their phones in the car.
"With a lot of teenagers today, their phones are like their oxygen," he said.
He noticed drivers talking on cellphones every day and, like other road safety issues, he discussed the behaviour with learner drivers when it was topical.
"I don't think there's a quick solution. It's education. It will happen," he said.
AA general manager of motoring affairs, Mike Noon, said drivers were divided into two groups: those who obeyed the law, and those who supported the idea but took the risk thinking they wouldn't get caught.
"The best solution here is not that the police have to go out and catch everyone, but that drivers get the message about the risk."
Mr Noon said phone calls - even through a hands-free kit - should be kept to a minimum, especially in heavy traffic or poor weather.
"Any conversation on a phone, even if it's on a hands-free, is distracting," he said.
There were still a "huge" number of crashes in New Zealand where cellphone use was a factor.
Provided they survived, drivers causing crashes in that way could face a careless driving charge and compromise their ability to claim insurance.
