Motorists who drive whilst talking on the phone are accidents waiting to happen
By Jamie Melbourne-Hayward
Motorists who drive whilst talking on the phone are accidents waiting to happen, and Wellington City Councillor Celia Wade-Brown wants the dire driving to stop. Her call to attention comes after Minister of Transport Steven Joyce let on that he was looking to implement bans on drivers making cell phone calls or texting. Cr Wade-Brown says, ?Drivers should concentrate on the road, not on their cell phones?. ?It?s time New Zealand caught up with the rest of the world.? ?We are pleased that the Minister of Transport wants action this year?, says Cr Wade-Brown. In March last year Telecom and Vodafone called for a ban on cell phone use by drivers. According to a University of Utah study drivers who talk on handheld or hands-free cellular phones are as impaired as drunk drivers. "We found that people are as impaired when they drive-and-talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit," says study co-author Frank Drews. Cr Wade-Brown says pedestrians need to make eye-to-eye contact with drivers to make before the venture onto crossings.? ?Drivers who are texting or chatting on their phones are nine times as likely to have a crash.? ?Where the crash involves a pedestrian there is a high chance of the pedestrian dying,? she says. Living Streets is the national organization for pedestrians and walkers, of which Cr Wade-Brown is president, and they have been pressing for a law change for years. In Australia the state of Victoria banned the use of cell phones by drivers in 1988 and many other countries, including Sweden and the UK, have bans in place.
