KEY POINTS:
A proposed ban on using hand-held cellphones while driving is "a liberal urban attack" on people living in rural areas, Far North Mayor Wayne Brown says.
The Mangonui-based mayor says the effects of the Government's proposed ban have not been thought through.
No one had thought about the negative effects on rural or farming communities.
"Cellphones increase rural productivity and reduce road kill," he said.
"They're used to dial *555 to intercept drunken, P-affected and other dangerous drivers, and warn of foreign tourists driving on the wrong side of the road."
Mr Brown rejects the idea that drivers should pull over and stop before answering or using their cellphone, especially in some rural areas like the Far North.
Talking to the Herald on his cellphone as he drove between Kahoe and Kaeo on State Highway 10 in poor weather yesterday afternoon, Mr Brown said there was nowhere to pull off the road. "You'll end up in a drain if you try to pull over. Work gets done on the phone, including this interview, and I've driven 4km quite safely behind a truck sending spray everywhere since I've been talking to you."
The mayor, who is chairman of Transpower and telecommunications company Kordia, says the proposed ban took no account of rural area situations.
Cellphones were a lifeline tool in life-threatening occasions and got emergency services quickly to accidents - which occurred often because of alcohol, which had not been banned in vehicles.
Mr Brown said banning hand-held cellphone use by drivers would cause them to text rather than talk, and that would be significantly more distracting for drivers than holding a phone to their ear.
In his six years as chairman of the Land Transport Safety Authority, Mr Brown said, he never found any evidence that hand-held cellphone use was killing people in vehicles.
"Accidents still happen in areas with no cellphone cover like parts of the Akerama Curves area [mid-Northland] and on Ninety Mile Beach.
"And a lot of people now blame their cellphone [for an accident] when they've been doing something else at the time like whacking their kids but they don't want to say that."
Mr Brown believes the main cause of accidents is inattention for any number of reasons that could be prevented only if driving was banned.
Instead of banning cellphone use while driving, he said, the Government should focus on educating people to be more attentive while they drive.
