Targeting phones right call

It's hard to imagine a more contentious set of road-safety rules than those surrounding the issue of cellphone usage by motorists.

When the rule banning people from using mobile phones while driving was introduced with much fanfare two years ago, police were insistent that it would save lives.

That insistence was regularly used to bat away the cries of outrage from a shocked public, most of whom clearly seemed to think the law shouldn't apply to them.

It's hard to quantify how much of a success the law has really been, despite reported figures claiming that between 2003 and 2008, 25 people lost their lives in crashes which resulted from people using their cellphones while behind the wheel.

By the same measure, since the law has been adopted, just nine deaths have been attributed to cellphone use.

In addition, as figures revealed to the Wanganui Chronicle reveal, 58 drivers were caught locally between November 2009 and September this year.

Those figures work out at a rate of slightly more than two drivers a month, which on the face of it seems low.

However, this does not guarantee a low rate of people breaking the cellphone law locally.

It may as much reflect decisions made by police on a daily basis to prioritise their workload, focusing instead on preventing more "serious" offending.

Nevertheless, the relatively low figure is enough to suggest that the message around cellphone use while in cars is getting through.

Combined with growing statistical data showing people generally taking more care on our roads, particularly around holiday weekends, there is a sense that finally the message is sinking in.

Police and road safety campaigners will certainly hope so.

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