Cellphone ban fails in sight of the law
Police are being accused of ignoring a major cause of crashes as the road toll soars to an eightyear high.
The extent to which motorists continue to use cellphones while driving was demonstrated by a Wellington man who stood outside the Wellington Central police station and estimated as many as 30 to 40 people an hour drove past using their phones.
‘‘When I shouted at one of these drivers, a passing policeman told me to watch my language, and completely ignored the offending driver,’’ Ian Sellen said.
A total of 380 people died on the roads in 2017 – 53 more than in 2016 and enough to make it the deadliest year since 2009.
‘‘There’s no way the police would have tolerated 30-40 drivers speeding past the police station,’’ road safety campaigner Clive Matthew-Wilson said. ‘‘Why the double standard?’’
He cited international studies, such as one in the United States estimating 26 per cent of all crashes were down to cellphone use, and another from Australia showing cellphone use had overtaken people not wearing seatbelts as one of the top five causes of road deaths.
The cellphone ban was failing because police were too focused on speeding, he said.
‘‘The other reason cellphone bans fail is because the authorities are using the same failed strategies, such as ad campaigns and issuing tickets. There is actually very little evidence that either of these strategies work.’’
Instead, police should have the power to permanently confiscate cellphones, he said.
Local Authority Traffic Institute president Andy Foster said the people of Sweden were upset when their annual road toll rose by three, and there would be a national crisis there if it had risen by as much as New Zealand’s had done since the historic low of 253 deaths in 2013.
Cellphones would have played a part in the rise, but the secret to bringing down the toll had multiple faces, he said: better road engineering, more appropriate speed limits for some roads, encouraging safer vehicles, and improving driver behaviour.
He was optimistic the new Government would, as it had already signalled, take a serious look at road safety.
AA spokesman Dylan Thomsen said it was reasonable to suspect cellphones played a part in the rising road toll, but hard data was difficult to get as it was usually down to drivers admitting having used a phone after a crash.
Many developed countries had a similarly increasing road toll, and cellphone use was likely to be just one factor in that.
A rise in road users, particularly those carrying freight, as the world came out of the global financial crisis also played a part, he said.
Police were unavailable to discuss the the topic, but issued a statement saying: ‘‘Drivers need to be aware of the very real risk that distractions represent, especially texting and using mobile phones while driving.’’
Police figures show that, from January 2010 to June 2017, 134,908 people were pulled over for mobile phone offences. Fines for offences totalled $10,624,103.
"There's no way the police would have tolerated 30-40 drivers speeding past the police station. Why the double standard?"
Road safety campaigner Clive Matthew-Wilson