A Bay of Plenty long-haul truck driver says he has “seen it all” on New Zealand’s roads, including drivers using laptops while at the wheel.
Ōmanawa truckie Tony Brooke has spent nearly 50 years in the job and travels throughout the North Island, where “I have seen it all in people’s risky behaviours behind the wheel”.
“I’ve even seen people driving using their laptops,” he said.
But he believed drivers using mobile phones was the biggest problem.
His comments come as fines soar for people using mobile phones while behind the wheel.
There had been several near-misses with Brooke’s 50-tonne bulk haulage truck because other drivers were distracted by their phones, he said.
“People are just not concentrating enough. I’ve even seen drivers trying to read a map resting on their steering wheel. It’s bloody ridiculous when you can download Google Maps to your phone.”
Brooke, who works for Tauranga-based Bulk Lines, said some younger drivers were “pretty clever” in how they texted as they didn’t even look at their phone screens but, in his view, they were still clearly distracted.
They should instead invest in hands-free devices.
Drivers caught using their phones can face a $150 fine and 20 demerit points.
Drivers who accumulate 100 demerit points within two years have their licences suspended for three months.
Brooke said, in his view, the “biggest problem” was that the penalty was not high enough.
The fine should be increased to $500, similar to penalties overseas, and the phone seized for 24 hours.
Lots of critical personal and work information was held on phones. Not having access to that would be a far more meaningful penalty for some drivers, he said.
A total of 1510 drivers were caught using phones in the Western Bay of Plenty during the first six months of this year, with fines totalling $226,050.
In 2022, police fined 978 drivers for the entire year and 428 in the previous year.
In the first half of 2023, another 827 drivers were fined for not wearing seatbelts, compared with 474 in 2022 and 320 in 2021.
Senior Sergeant Wayne Hunter, the head of Western Bay’s road policing unit, said it “defied belief” that so many people ran the risk of crashing and possibly injuring or killing someone.
Since June, his Western Bay road policing team had been setting up regular road checkpoints around the district.
In the past three months, “hundreds and hundreds” more people were pinged for using their phones while driving and for not wearing seatbelts, he said.
The move was in response to a directive from Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, which applied to every police district.
“We believe this is working as we usually have between 15 to 20 road deaths a year in this district but so far this year there have been five fatal crashes. And serious crashes are also down,” Hunter said.
“Unfortunately, many people are still not getting the message despite us being out there to be seen and making every effort to try and change people’s risky driving behaviours.”
Hunter said this included a woman who “ripped into the police” online, accusing them of adding to congestion and gridlock with one of their Tauranga checkpoints.
Hunter rejected this, saying thecheckpoints were organised to minimise the impact on other motorists. There was no excuse for anyone talking or texting on a phone and not wearing a seatbelt, he said.
“It’s a huge distraction and God forbid a pedestrian or cyclist was crossing the road when a driver was distracted by their phone. There are a lot more cyclists on the road at this time of year and that’s only going to increase during the summer months.”
He said drivers distracted by phones and not wearing seatbelts were “prominent factors” in injury crashes.
Police made “no apologies for upping the ante”. “Even a minor crash can have serious consequences ...”
Road safety advocate Caroline Perry said the increase in people being caught using a phone while driving, or not wearing a seatbelt, was “extremely concerning”.
Perry, the director of Brake New Zealand, urged drivers to put their phones on “Do not disturb” mode, or out of reach, when behind the wheel.
“Driving is the riskiest thing most of us do regularly and requires 100 per cent of your attention. Using a phone at the wheel takes your mind off the task of driving, makes you less likely to see hazards around you, and you’re slower to respond to them.”
Fabian Marsh, senior manager of road safety for Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, said it commended the police’s efforts.
“We know that both distraction and not wearing seatbelts are road safety issues that contribute to the unnecessary number of people being harmed and killed on our streets and roads.”
Anything that distracted people for more than two seconds while driving “significantly increased” the likelihood of a crash or near-crash.
The 19-year-old disappeared without her wallet or mobile phone.