Driving ourselves to distraction

ALASTAIR SLOANE

The first reported case was in the North Shore District Court about 10 years ago. A man charged with careless driving admitted he was dialling a number on his cellphone when he lost control of his car and crashed into a power pole. He was fined.

There have since been accidents - including two fatals in 1999 - in which the driver's use of a cellphone was seen as a contributing cause.

But there is no legislation prohibiting the use of hand-held cellphones by drivers in New Zealand.

"There has been no work done on regulating against the use of cellphones in cars and there isn't anything in the pipeline unless it becomes more of an issue," says Land Transport Safety Authority spokesman Craig Dowling.

"One of the main reasons is that it is seen as pointless putting in something that can't be enforced, or where safety gains aren't immediately apparent.

"We would have to be sure that the cost of enforcement would be matched by the gains. And it has to be weighed against the role of cellphones in getting help to an accident as soon as possible. This can be a very good thing."

Herald journalist Harvey Clark wants a ban of some sort on the use of cellphones by drivers. He has had a gutsful of cellphone-yapping drivers after almost being knocked down on a pedestrian crossing in the city.

"I had the 'cross now' signal, stepped on to the crossing and was almost run down by a driver turning the corner and chatting on his cellphone.

"He never looked in my direction and never realised I was on the crossing until I lurched sideways, almost falling, to avoid him. Only then did he brake.

"I remonstrated with him and suggested he be a little more careful in future, to which he yelled abuse as he accelerated off down the road, still with cellphone in hand.

"In another incident I was being tailgated in heavy traffic by a driver who was talking on his cellphone.

"He was so close that I was reluctant to tap my brake-lights because I'm certain he would have rammed me. He seemed oblivious to everything about him except his cellphone.

"In this case, I got out of his lane, but he moved up and tailgated the next car, still yapping away and not realising the potential danger he was creating.

"These drivers were not young hoons. They were suited, businessmen-types in their 30s, the sort of people you would expect to have grown up a bit by now and learned some responsibility."

Accident statistics for 1999 indicate that despite the greater use of cellphones, their contribution to car crashes hasn't changed significantly. Cellphones distracted drivers in 16 car accidents last year. It was a similar number in 1998.

"But to put that into perspective, there were 8444 car crashes in New Zealand in 1999," says Dowling.

"Looking at driver distraction as an issue, there were 41 cases where radio/cassette stereos were implicated in crashes. There were 43 instances where drivers crashed after reaching to pick up something that had dropped on the car floor.

"Cellphones are a very visible sign of driver inattention. And yet in these other things - which people don't notice - such as reaching down to pick up something, the consequences are often the same."

Drivers who use cellphones at the wheel in New South Wales can be fined up to $A1200 ($1540). The increasing role of cellphones in fatal accidents in the United States is one reason why the National Highway and Safety Administration is looking at introducing a law which bans any feature in a car that demands more than 15 seconds of the driver's time.

"There is research which says that the safety issue with cellphones isn't so much holding them, as the need to focus on the conversation," says Dowling.

"We suggest drivers use a hands-free kit where they can have both hands on the wheel to react quicker. But if their mind is elsewhere they could still get into trouble."