Motorists rack up $1.7m in fines for mobile phone use
Critics say authorities too soft on offenders. Mark Quinlivan and Joanne Holden report.
The granddaughter of a 93-yearold woman killed by a texting driver is issuing a heartfelt plea to summer motorists: stay off your phones.
‘‘I encourage each and every single person to turn their phones off while driving, or at the very least put their phone on silent and out of reach so they cannot be distracted while driving and can fully give all their attention to the important task of driving,’’ Helen Small says.
Small’s grandmother, Phyllis Penman, was hit by a texting driver on a pedestrian crossing in 2010. She died in hospital five hours later – the first to be killed after the law banning mobile phone use in cars came into effect.
‘‘It was absolutely devastating. It’s something that you never get over,’’ Small said.
The driver, then 21-year-old Curtis Lawson, admitted dangerous driving causing death and was sentenced to home detention.
Since then, Small has been volunteering with Road Safe Hawke’s Bay, and is frustrated at the number of people continuing to use their phones while driving.
‘‘The cellphone message definitely needs to be kept out there,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s not going to bring her back, but we can make a difference for another family. I’m trying to get something positive out of what was a terrible, terrible tragedy.’’
The most recent figures from police for last year – until November 30 – show 21,153 New Zealanders were ticketed $1.69 million for flouting rules around mobile phone use while driving. That’s an average of 67 tickets a day.
The figures show 2998 motorists were ticketed in Canterbury, 919 in the Southern District, No. of Winners Amount: 2062 in Wellington, 1596 in Waikato, and 2910 in Auckland. The rest of the tickets were divided between Waitemata, Counties/Manukau, Bay of Plenty, Eastern District, Central District, and Tasman.
The penalties for using a mobile phone whilst driving were an $80 fine, and 20 demerit points. In 2017 the New Zealand Transport Agency ruled out increasing the penalty after calls to double it.
Constable Ben Grant, of the Canterbury Highway Patrol Unit, said police were ‘‘putting more focus’’ on offenders. ‘‘The more that people do use mobile phones while they’re driving, then there’s more chance that one day a child might run out from behind a car . . . it only takes one little glance at your phone to put other people and yourself at risk.’’
However, road safety commentator Clive Matthew-Wilson said he believed police weren’t doing enough to penalise texting drivers. ‘‘You can stand beside any major intersection in the country and watch drivers talking and texting as they drive by. These drivers continue to use their phones because they consistently get away with it, for the most part,’’ Matthew-Wilson said.
Despite the risks, a Harvard study found people felt safe while using their phone and driving.
The study said people used common sense and experience as a guide.
‘‘Basically, if we reply to a text or email while driving once or twice and nothing happens – no crash – we think it’s safe to continue doing that behaviour.’’
Furthermore, the study pointed out people thought it was safe to pick up their phones at red lights.
‘‘We think can pick up our phone and then put it back down again when the light turns green,’’ it said.
The problem was when the phones were put down and attention was returned to the task of driving, it took almost half a minute for the brain to reorient and process what the eyes were now looking at. Southern partygoers suffered for their art as long queues for water and lack of shade in hot temperatures marred the South Island’s biggest music festival.
About 20,000 people attended the Nelson leg of the Bay Dreams festival on Friday. Revellers braved the heat at Trafalgar Park to see one of the biggest line-ups of the summer, including American rapper Cardi B and Australian dance duo Peking Duk.
Hesham Mohssen, visiting from Christchurch, said that although the music was great there were some issues with the lack of shelter and shade.
‘‘The acts were great – the fact we had to stay out in the sun for 12 hours was a bit ridiculous. There was no shelter, a 30-minute wait for everything and a 10-minute wait for water.’’
Festival-goers reported long lines for water and other drinks throughout the event as the temperature reached up to 28 degrees Celsius.
Organiser Toby Burrows said shade was always an issue for festivals.
While Trafalgar Park’s main grandstand provided a lot of shelter, restrictions on the stadium’s turf limited the number of shade tents.
There had been enough water to go around, but the
‘‘It only takes one little glance at your phone to put other people and yourself at risk.’’ Ben Grant
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