Police bust of drivers using phones catches one every three minutes
Police are on the watch for drivers distracted by their phones - and it doesn't take long. It's a busy rush-hour, and drivers are busy too - on their phones. Today, police are out to get them. "There's one down there now, look. See, in the car," says Sergeant Dave Townsend. "The phone was in his right hand and he was texting." Police are running the operation in the Mount Vic Tunnel. Sgt Townsend spots people using their phone and he calls it in.
"Female driver, phone right hand, appears to be texting," he tells his counterpart. Waiting for them at the other end with their license plate number and vehicle description is the rest of the police, ready to give them a ticket.
One driver caught is the chief executive of a government department, who did not want to be identified.
He questioned what the rules were for using a cellphone while driving. Another person caught says she was using her cellphone to play music. This will cost her $80 and 20 demerit points. Inspector Juliet Burgess says there is zero tolerance. "There's no excuse that's reasonable. They need to just put their cellphones away." It is coming up to 10 years since New Zealand banned using phones while driving - and the number of people caught has tripled.
It started with just over 8000 in 2010 before rising to a record 28,900 in 2016. And it's forecast to hit a record-high of more than 29,000 in 2019. It ends - and ruins - lives. This is the death toll: 41 people have been killed in phone-related accidents since the ban came in. Another 109 have been seriously injured. Then there is the inconvenience it can cause. Police are blaming phone-related minor crashes as a major cause of rush-hour gridlock. "We get a lot of nose to tail crashes on the state highway going out of Wellington, a lot of those are caused by distraction, and that can hold the whole city up for hours," Sgt Townsend says.
So what do we do about breaking this addiction?
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Let's start with the fine of $80. In the United Kingdom - it's the equivalent of a $370 fine - and you lose half your demerit points in one go. In the state of British Columbia in Canada, it's a $620 fine. In Australia, Queensland is planning a $1040 fine - and on the second infringement, you lose your licence. We asked the Government what it's doing to get people off their phones while driving. The answer is not a lot. Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter says they will be "consulting early next year" on fines.
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Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
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52.5% Human-centred experience and communication
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14.7% Critical thinking
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30.1% Resilience and adaptability
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2.7% Other - I will share below!
Even Australians get it - so why not Kiwis???
“Ten years ago, if a heatwave as intense as last week’s record-breaker had hit the east coast, Australia’s power supply may well have buckled. But this time, the system largely operated as we needed, despite some outages.
On Australia’s main grid last quarter, renewables and energy storage contributed more than 50% of supplied electricity for the first time, while wholesale power prices were more than 40% lower than a year earlier.
[…] shifting demand from gas and coal for power and petrol for cars is likely to deliver significantly lower energy bills for households.
Last quarter, wind generation was up almost 30%, grid solar 15% and grid-scale batteries almost tripled their output. Gas generation fell 27% to its lowest level for a quarter century, while coal fell 4.6% to its lowest quarterly level ever.
Gas has long been the most expensive way to produce power. Gas peaking plants tend to fire up only when supply struggles to meet demand and power prices soar. Less demand for gas has flowed through to lower wholesale prices.”
Full article: www.theguardian.com...
If even Australians see the benefit of solar - then why is NZ actively boycotting solar uptake? The increased line rental for electricity was done to make solar less competitive and prevent cost per kWh to rise even more than it did - and electricity costs are expected to rise even more. Especially as National favours gas - which is the most expensive form of generating electricity. Which in turn will accelerate Climate Change, as if New Zealand didn’t have enough problems with droughts, floods, slips, etc. already.
Wills and Luxon are screwing the country to please the oil and gas industry.
Today the smart investment is in battery peaker plants in combination with solar and wind, or with any other renewable generation capacity during low demand times.
Gas is expensive and will get more so over time.
Let's not forget that Nicola Willis' dad is a big time oil and gas investor, lobbyist, and industry insider.
Maybe this should be posted in ‚Crime & Safety‘?
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