Call for tight hands-free phone law

Road safety promoters say nothing less than completely hands-free phones should be used in vehicles, and simple earpieces connected to mobile displays requiring numbers to be dialled manually will not do.

Some uncertainty over the extent of a ban on hand-held phones from November 1 emerged yesterday because a proposed rule change covering 19 road-user amendments has yet to be gazetted and published.

But the Transport Agency said last night that the definition of a hands-free cellphone would include requirements that it was either held in a mounting fixed to a vehicle, or was used without requiring the driver to hold or manipulate it in any way.

Automobile Association motoring affairs manager Mike Noon said he was still waiting for details on the rule change, which will carry the penalty of an $80 infringement fee and 20 demerit points against a driver's licence, but he assumed it would allow only hands-off wireless data transfer technology.

He said the AA supported the Government's recommendation that drivers pull over to receive calls, even if in a car with fully hands-free technology, given the distraction likely to be caused by most phone conversations.

Auckland transport consultant John Gottler said he understood the rule change would not prescribe particular phone equipment but would leave it to drivers to ensure any calls they made were fully hands-free.

That could potentially allow low-cost earpieces, but these had to be connected to phones with automatic answering capabilities.