Hands-free the best safety call

By VIKKI BLAND

It's a scary moment. You round a bend on one of New Zealand's notorious rural "highways" and coming towards you is a motorist with one hand on the steering wheel, one hand on a mobile phone - and both eyes looking at the text message being typed.

As the text tyrant passes, you let out your breath, then feel angry. What possesses people to talk and type on mobile phones while driving?

What indeed? Though drivers may adopt the maddening "an accident won't happen to me" attitude when texting or talking on their mobile phones, the reality is that thousands of New Zealanders use a mobile phone while driving as a normal part of their working day.

If work involves driving - as it does for trade professionals, sales representatives, and executives driving in and out of Auckland City - then it is likely to involve phoning while driving. Joanne Citizen may pull her car over to use her mobile, but Tina Trade Professional, running late for her fifth appointment, probably won't.

The Land Transport Safety Authority notes the dilemma of such employees in its Road Safety to 2010 Strategy report (available at www.ltsa.govt.nz).

The report states that driving while talking on a mobile phone should be made illegal, but notes such legislation would then have to include radio telephones, CB radios, and electronic pagers.

"This would have implications for a wide range of occupational drivers and the existing safety and non-safety benefits of using a mobile phone in a car, such as being able to report dangerous driving and serious crashes, and being able to respond quickly to business clients and colleagues, would be significantly reduced," says the report.

Whether or not using an electronic device while driving will become illegal, the good news is that as employers increasingly equip their mobile workforces with the wireless tools of the trade - mobile phones, laptop computers, PDAs and payment systems - more are providing hands-free mobile phone car kits, or at least an earpiece to provide a safer working environment (under OSH regulations, a company car is considered a workplace).

The bad news is that thousands of small business people won't have a mobile phone car kit ($200-$600 including installation) or $100 to $200 earpiece high on their list of purchase priorities. And perhaps that's fair enough - according to the authority, the number of reported cellular phone-related crashes is relatively small considering how many New Zealanders use a mobile phone (around 2.3 million of us).

But surely, any increased driving risk is worth combating? And however unsubstantiated the link between wireless phones and cancer, who doesn't think "brain tumour" when their ear grows hot during a long call?

Kevin Kenrick, general manager for Telecom Mobile, says drivers have several options.

"[One is] to buy a car kit with a phone cradle, separate microphone and loudspeaker, and an auto mute which automatically turns down the volume of a car radio or stereo when a call comes in and back-up when the call is terminated," he says.

Installing an external car antenna also helps. It increases the quality of a mobile call so people concentrate more on their driving and less on hearing the conversation.

However, he says car kits are not always backwardly compatible, meaning the user may need a new kit if they upgrade their mobile phone. Car kits may also affect the workflow of people who are in and out of their cars all the time.

"I have spoken to couriers and truck drivers who say they get midway through a conversation and then have to leave the vehicle. For them, a [detached] mobile phone with an earpiece is better," says Kenrick.

He says though some people do drive dangerously using a mobile phone, research is difficult because "if you ask people what they do, their claimed behaviour will be different to what they actually did" - a research problem also identified by the safety authority.

In April, Telecom Mobile rival Vodafone New Zealand launched a practical campaign to encourage drivers to either use voice messaging or diversion services or pull over when their mobile phones rang while driving.

Vodafone provided designated Roadside Stop points over Easter and Queen's Birthday weekend and handed out safe driving leaflets and light refreshments to drivers who stopped.

The telco says hands-free mobile phone use is safest in the car, and the reading or sending of text messages is out.

Lynley Kirk-Smith, Vodafone general manager of communications and sponsorship, has a further tip.

"Of course, there's always the option to simply turn your mobile off," she says, brightly.

Small businesses everywhere can roll their eyes, but should also roll into their nearest mobile phone specialist and get that car kit fitted.