NZ REGULATION:
Call to penalise drivers harder for using cellphones while driving as road toll soars
As the road toll in New Zealand jumps, calls are mounting for a review of the punishment handed to motorists who break the driver cellphone ban. The number of people caught using cellphones while driving now outnumbers those caught drinkdriving, with 27,681 people flouting the cellphone law in the 12 months to June, compared with 24,858 caught drink-driving.
But the Ministry of Transport says it has no plans to increase the penalty, which stands at an NZ$80 (about F$114.69) fine and 20 demerit points.
Wellington City Council transport strategy and operations portfolio leader Chris Calvi-Freeman wants the penalties to be doubled, in line with what happened in the UK earlier this year.
“I have a personal feeling that the road toll increase is being significantly affected by the use of cellphones,” Calvi-Freeman said. Up to October 20, 302 people had died on the roads in 2017, closing in on the 328 for all of 2016, with more than two months still to go till the end of the year.
“My observation when I’m driving, walking or cycling is that so many people are now flicking their eyes up and down to their device that they hold below wheel height,” Calvi-Freeman said.
“I’m very fearful as to what this sort of thing is going to do for more vulnerable road users – cyclists and pedestrians.”
Last week Labour’s transport spokesman, Michael Wood, said the country’s rising road toll was “horrific”, and the current road safety strategy was “patently failing”. “We’ll be driven by the evidence for what works, including whether stiffer penalties for driving while distracted would make a difference.”
Green Party transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said last week that the rate of distracted driving needed to come down, and research was required on whether harsher penalties would reduce that.
“It’s pretty clear that we need better enforcement.
“It’s not uncommon to see one-inthree or one-in-four drivers looking at their phones.”