$80 fine for moving her cellphone
After an $80 fine and 20 demerit points, an Auckland woman says the rules around cellphone usage in cars are not clear enough.
The sun was beating down onto her car’s dashboard and traffic was at a standstill on August 30 when Huapai resident Ragini Gautam said she moved her phone to prevent it over heating.
Next thing she knew, she was pulled over by a police officer and penalised for using a mobile phone while driving.
‘‘I didn’t do anything. I just moved my phone,’’ Gautam said.
‘‘Are you telling me if you move an object then bam, it’s a fine? It was literally standstill traffic because of an accident. I wasn’t using it. I was just moving it because phones get overheated in the sun.’’
Gautam, a radio journalist, lodged an appeal online and found the police’s response frustrating.
‘‘They said it was irrelevant whether I was using it or not, it’s that the phone was in my hand. I went to see the law online and, apparently, I can use the phone, if it’s not handheld. So you can use Bluetooth or have mounted it to the dashboard. I just can’t move it,’’ she said.
In emails shown to Stuff , an infringement officer confirmed drivers could only use a mobile phone if the driver did not hold or manipulate it to do so.
‘‘Or [if] the mobile phone is securely mounted to the vehicle and the driver manipulates the phone infrequently and briefly.’’
When Gautam queried this, saying she was not using the phone, just moving it, the infringement officer said actual usage did not matter.
‘‘As previously advised, you are not permitted to hold the phone. It is irrelevant whether you are making or receiving a call,’’ the officer wrote.
Gautam said she paid the fine but believed the law was ambiguous and caught people like her out when she wasn’t using her phone.
Road policing Inspector Peter McKennie said police actively looked for drivers using their mobile devices, or otherwise distracted.
‘‘Imagine if someone close to you was injured or killed by a driver who wasn’t focused on the road.
‘‘Drivers need to be aware of the very real risk that any distractions represent, especially texting and otherwise using mobile phones while driving.’’
McKennie said drivers needed to put the phone away, or pull over.
‘‘Put your passengers and other road users first. Nobody wants to share the road with a driver who is not paying full attention.’’
New Zealanders have paid almost $11.5 million in fines since the law changed in 2009 making cellphone usage while driving illegal, according to police statistics.