Tauranga police crackdown: Drivers utilizing telephones, laptops, maps at wheel ought to face more durable penalties – truckie

A Bay of A lot long-haul truck driver says he has “seen all of it” on New Zealand’s roads, together with drivers utilizing laptops whereas on the wheel.

Ōmanawa truckie Tony Brooke has spent almost 50 years within the job and travels all through the North Island, the place “I’ve seen all of it in folks’s dangerous behaviours behind the wheel”.

“I’ve even seen folks driving utilizing their laptops,” he mentioned.

However he believed drivers utilizing cellphones was the most important downside.

His feedback come as fines soar for folks utilizing cellphones whereas behind the wheel.

There had been a number of near-misses with Brooke’s 50-tonne bulk haulage truck as a result of different drivers had been distracted by their telephones, he mentioned.

“Persons are simply not concentrating sufficient. I’ve even seen drivers attempting to learn a map resting on their steering wheel. It’s bloody ridiculous when you’ll be able to obtain Google Maps to your cellphone.”

Brooke, who works for Tauranga-based Bulk Traces, mentioned some youthful drivers had been “fairly intelligent” in how they texted as they didn’t even take a look at their cellphone screens however, in his view, they had been nonetheless clearly distracted.

They need to as an alternative spend money on hands-free gadgets.

Drivers caught utilizing their telephones can face a $150 effective and 20 demerit factors.

Drivers who accumulate 100 demerit factors inside two years have their licences suspended for 3 months.

Brooke mentioned, in his view, the “largest downside” was that the penalty was not excessive sufficient.

The effective ought to be elevated to $500, much like penalties abroad, and the cellphone seized for twenty-four hours.

A number of vital private and work data was held on telephones. Not getting access to that will be a much more significant penalty for some drivers, he mentioned.

A complete of 1510 drivers had been caught utilizing telephones within the Western Bay of A lot throughout the first six months of this yr, with fines totalling $226,050.

In 2022, police fined 978 drivers for your entire yr and 428 within the earlier yr.

Within the first half of 2023, one other 827 drivers had been fined for not carrying seatbelts, in contrast with 474 in 2022 and 320 in 2021.

Senior Sergeant Wayne Hunter, the pinnacle of Western Bay’s highway policing unit, mentioned it “defied perception” that so many individuals ran the danger of crashing and probably injuring or killing somebody.

Since June, his Western Bay highway policing workforce had been establishing common highway checkpoints across the district.

Prior to now three months, “lots of and lots of” extra folks had been pinged for utilizing their telephones whereas driving and for not carrying seatbelts, he mentioned.

The transfer was in response to a directive from Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, which utilized to each police district.

“We imagine that is working as we normally have between 15 to twenty highway deaths a yr on this district however thus far this yr there have been 5 deadly crashes. And severe crashes are additionally down,” Hunter mentioned.

“Sadly, many individuals are nonetheless not getting the message regardless of us being on the market to be seen and making each effort to try to change folks’s dangerous driving behaviours.”

Hunter mentioned this included a girl who “ripped into the police” on-line, accusing them of including to congestion and gridlock with considered one of their Tauranga checkpoints.

Hunter rejected this, saying thecheckpoints had been organised to minimise the affect on different motorists. There was no excuse for anybody speaking or texting on a cellphone and never carrying a seatbelt, he mentioned.

“It’s an enormous distraction and God forbid a pedestrian or bike owner was crossing the highway when a driver was distracted by their cellphone. There are much more cyclists on the highway presently of yr and that’s solely going to extend throughout the summer time months.”

He mentioned drivers distracted by telephones and never carrying seatbelts had been “distinguished elements” in harm crashes.

Police made “no apologies for upping the ante”. “Even a minor crash can have severe penalties …”

Highway security advocate Caroline Perry mentioned the rise in folks being caught utilizing a cellphone whereas driving, or not carrying a seatbelt, was “extraordinarily regarding”.

Perry, the director of Brake New Zealand, urged drivers to place their telephones on “Don’t disturb” mode, or out of attain, when behind the wheel.

“Driving is the riskiest factor most of us do recurrently and requires 100 per cent of your consideration. Utilizing a cellphone on the wheel takes your thoughts off the duty of driving, makes you much less more likely to see hazards round you, and also you’re slower to answer them.”

Fabian Marsh, senior supervisor of highway security for Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Company, mentioned it recommended the police’s efforts.

“We all know that each distraction and never carrying seatbelts are highway questions of safety that contribute to the pointless variety of folks being harmed and killed on our streets and roads.”

Something that distracted folks for greater than two seconds whereas driving “considerably elevated” the chance of a crash or near-crash.