Look who's talking and texting, too

Police blame complacency for a giant leap in number of drivers caught using phones behind the wheel.

Four times as many Kiwi motorists are being nabbed using cellphones behind the wheel compared to five years ago when the practice was banned.

The shocking figures, revealed in police statistics given to the Herald on Sunday, have prompted road safety leaders to call for a change in attitude to drivers using cellphones - including those with hands-free technology.

The Herald on Sunday spent an hour and a half watching morning and evening rush-hour motorists at the Hobson St entrance to the Southern Motorway in central Auckland last week and from the Hopetoun Bridge, and spotted 39 drivers using cellphones.

Most were making or receiving calls, and others appeared to be texting or checking emails while travelling at high speeds.

All sorts of drivers from well-dressed commuters in smart saloons to tradies in work vans were casually chatting and laughing on their mobile phones while travelling at more than 80km/h.

A few reckless people had their eyes trained on their laps, apparently sending or reading messages on their handsets.

Among those snapped using a cellphone was a van driver for Haynes Glass in Auckland.

When contacted by the Herald on Sunday, company boss Peter Haynes stressed his seven drivers were aware of the firm's rule that cellphones were not to be used unless with a hands-free kit.

He said he would speak with the driver concerned.

"I'll smack his hand," he said.

Those caught face an $80 fine and 20 demerit points, but Automobile Association motoring affairs general manager Mike Noon says increasing that penalty is not the answer.

"We need a culture change for people to understand that it is dangerous to themselves and others. What we haven't got to is people saying [to drivers] 'get off the phone, what are you doing?'.

"Mum doesn't put the seatbelt on the kids in the car because she's scared of getting a ticket. She puts the seatbelt on the kids because she knows she needs to do that to keep them safe. We need to get that attitude into people's minds, because the police can't be everywhere to enforce it."

Police figures show 468 motorists were ticketed for using a cellphone in November 2009, the month the law changed.

In September last year, the most recent month for which figures are available, 1988 motorists were ticketed. More than $4.8 million in fines has been netted since the law changed.

A month-by-month breakdown of ticketing shows an unmistakable increase since the law change, with the number of those busted peaking at 2260 in May last year - more than six tickets a day.

Hastings woman Helen Small is "disgusted" by the actions of law-breaking motorists.

She lost her grandmother, ¬Phyllis Penman after a texting driver struck her at a pedestrian crossing in March 2010.

Penman was the first person to die after the law change because a driver was using a cellphone.

Small won't talk about the man who killed her grandmother - her message is for anyone making the same bad decision he did.

"I know the devastating consequences a couple of seconds of inattention can have and it's really disappointing people still constantly use their phones. My grandma's death was totally preventable. She didn't need to die that way.

"There's no text message or phone call that is so urgent it puts someone's life at risk."

Ministry of Transport figures show Penman was one of six people who died in 2010 in crashes where a cellphone was a contributing factor. Another 15 people were seriously injured and 75 received minor injuries in 69 crashes over the same period.

In 2013, the latest year for which figures are available, one person died, five were seriously injured and 56 received minor injuries over 53 crashes. There was a total of 9348 fatal or injury-causing crashes in New Zealand in 2013.

If death and injury aren't enough of a deterrent, there are other ways using a cellphone behind the wheel can cost people, Noon says.

"If you crash, police will be checking if a phone is involved. You could find that you've invalidated your insurance or are changed with careless driving."

Hands-free kits are not a free pass either. Calls should only be made using voice-activated commands and in easy driving conditions.

"Pick your time and keep the call short."

Others can help by not calling or texting those they know are driving, and drivers can use free ser¬vices like Vodafone's DriveSafe, which auto-texts senders to say the person is driving.

Parents can set rules for young drivers in the family, he says.

"I've heard of one family that said to their kids, 'When you're driving, the phone goes in the boot'."

Assistant commissioner for road policing Dave Cliff says attitudes are similar to those held when seatbelt laws changed in the early 1970s.

"There was a whole hue and cry and people saying 'This is ridiculous. I can jump out of a car in a road crash and if I drive into a river or lake I'll drown.'

"It was very unpopular and you look back now and say 'Well, that's ridiculous, it's the single biggest safety device in a car and what idiots we would be not to use them'."

Few fines were issued initially, and many ignored the seatbelt law, but as enforcement increased, attitudes changed.

The increase in tickets for drivers using cellphones is the same; Cliff doesn't believe more people are breaking the law than in November 2009. "I think there's a hardening of attitudes by police because we're getting more public support to do that."

The Government will decide if penalties need to increase, but any push for change must come from the community, as it did with drink driving laws, Cliff says.

Those who think they are immune from the consequences must see the bigger picture - using cellphones at the wheel can lead to trauma that is "entirely prevent¬able".

"This kills people. You might not have had a crash in the last week, or the last year, or you've never had one while distracted [by] a cellphone.

"But what I will absolutely tell you is people will die this year, people will be left with lifelong disabilities, because someone was distracted.

"You've got no right to jeopardise the life or safety of someone else because it's convenient to make a call or text."

One text away from tragedy

Helen Small and Brenda Wheatley, with a picture of Helen's grandmother Phyllis Penman. Photo / Paul Taylor

Phyllis Penman was on a pedestrian crossing when she was hit by a texting driver.

The 93-year-old was going home from her weekly game of cards with friends at Hastings RSA when she was killed.

There was so much more to come, say family.

The mum-of-one and grandmother-of-two was already planning her 100th birthday party when she died five years ago next month, granddaughter Helen Small says.

"She loved birthdays. Her goal was to get to 100 because she wanted a card from the Queen."

Her grandmother walked daily, volunteered and went on every Age Concern outing.
That vitality kept her alive almost five hours after she was run down.

Doctors told the family she held on longer than someone half her age would have, but her injuries were not survivable.

"Every bone was broken, she had severe head injuries, she had to have her leg amputated. We had to identify her at midnight and her facial injuries were that horrific that she wasn't really identifiable to us.

"Everyone says it's like a nightmare but it's worse than a nightmare because a nightmare you wake up from. It's absolutely horrendous to go and identify someone you love when they're looking like that.

"You expect someone of that age to die peacefully and with dignity, not be taken out in such a horrific way."

Havelock North man Curtis Lawson, 21, later admitted a charge of dangerous driving causing Penman's death.

He was sentenced to nine months' home detention and disqualified from driving for three years.

Anyone thinking of doing what Lawson did should turn their phone off or keep it out of reach, Small says.

"If you really have to take that call or see that text, pull over. You're only going to add a couple of extra minutes.

"I had to identify my grandma, with horrific injuries. How would you feel if you had to identify someone you love?"