In 2018 more than 26,000 mobile phone offences, yielding around $2 million in fines, were recorded in NZ. Is the $80 fine too low? In Queensland the fine is $1044. Photo / File
In 2018 more than 26,000 mobile phone offences, yielding around $2 million in fines, were recorded in NZ. Is the $80 fine too low? In Queensland the fine is $1044. Photo / File
ON THE ROAD
There's a You Tube clip that's gone viral called "The Impossible Texting Driving Test". It's a Belgian work which shows a driving instructor who has just been advised of a new driver licence regulation. This requires driver licence applicants to be able to demonstrate how they can text and driveto be able to gain their licence.
The clip films the outcomes which are scary and predictable - that it is impossible to text and drive.
A relation was taken out three weeks ago by a taxi driver on a cellphone. The young, volunteer first responder was on his way to a course in another town at 7.30am, Saturday morning. The taxi driver, phone to ear, rounded the corner on the wrong side, the car in front swerved and flipped and the taxi driver hit our man head on. A three-car crash!
It's the sort of accident you don't read about - a few days in hospital, a month off work, intensive physio and likely permanent damage to an ankle. Three vehicles written off all because a professional driver with a passenger took a phone call.
The use of a cellphone while driving has been banned in New Zealand for more than a decade now, yet independent rudimentary observation suggests that around 25 per cent of drivers still do it and admit to it. The largest study done in this country indicated that one in 40 drivers at any one time will be on the phone.
In 2018 more than 26,000 mobile phone offences, yielding around $2 million in fines, were recorded in NZ. This level of offending and the paltry fine level, has prompted the government to review whether the infringement penalties are appropriate, to the level of risk involved in cellphone driving.
In New Zealand, if caught driving using a cellphone, you pay an $80 fine and incur 20 demerits points (100 demerits collected and you forfeit your licence). Many other countries incur much tougher penalties.
Queensland has just implemented a fine of $1044 and four demerits (12 demerits and you lose your licence) and other Australian states are following suit. It's reported in the UK that in 2017, when they doubled the penalty to $400 fine and loss of licence, that cellphone driving fell by 27 per cent.
Text messaging while driving increases the crash risk by 23 times. At 100km/h and four seconds looking at the phone, that's 200m travelled when anything can happen. Photo / File
There's a well established body of research around cellphone driving. It's not something that can be done by mistake. You deliberately choose to use the phone behind the wheel, and the more drivers doing it, the greater the risk of a crash and of normalising unsafe driving.
Cellphone conversations while driving increases the collision risk by about five times. There are negative effects on reaction times, lane keeping, car following ability and speed control. The literature talks of "inattention blindness" while you focus on the conversation and not the driving.
It's the conversation which is distracting regardless of whether the phone is hands free or hand held. The person at the other end of your conversation can't see what you are doing and continues to engage no matter what you are confronting on the road. The distraction of the conversation continues after the call.
Passenger conversations are also distracting but the passenger is watching what you are doing and tends to have a protective effect with a shared awareness of the driving context.
Text messaging while driving increases the crash risk by 23 times. Compared to normal drivers, texters spend 400 per cent more time with their eyes off the road. At 100km/h and four seconds looking at the phone, that's 200m travelled when anything can happen.
Even if you believe you can text without looking, it's the inattention blindness of thinking about the message that gets you, and you can't react to changes in the road ahead.
Cellphone use while driving is more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol. A simulator study showed that a cellphone conversation slowed reaction time by 18 per cent while a 0.08 alcohol level slowed it by 12 per cent.
If you wouldn't drink and drive, then turn your cellphone off as well behind the wheel.
• John Williamson is chairman of Roadsafe Northland and Northland Road Safety Trust, a former national councillor for NZ Automobile Association and former Whangārei District Council member.
