"It's simply not worth it, especially when there could be tragic consequences.
"In some of our checkpoints we pick up between 10 to 20 drivers using their cellphones and then the next day we will have about half as many, so we believe the message is getting through."
The grim consequences of driving while distracted were witnessed in 2010, when 93-year-old Phyllis Penman died after being hit on a Hastings pedestrian crossing near Hawke's Bay Hospital by a car with a text-messaging driver.
For dangerous driving causing death the driver, Curtis Ray Lawson, was sentenced to nine months' home detention and disqualified from driving for three years. Mrs Penman's granddaughter Helen Small has strongly campaigned since the tragedy for drivers to turn off their phones when behind the wheel.
"We have a specific focus campaign one week every month but we are always policing drivers using cellphones throughout the year," Mr Brown said. "Police have zero tolerance for drivers who use their phones."
Last Saturday the NZ Herald published a photograph of a man driving a company vehicle with one hand on the phone and another holding a cigarette. His employer, when contacted by the paper, dismissed the notion of any danger and said the customer was more important than a fine. "I will take a [small] fine every time, rather than miss a call and turn away business," Trilect Electrical Services boss Peter McInally said. "I have had tickets and I will get more, and that doesn't discourage me, to stop answering my phone."
Mr Brown was aware of the retort and said any employer whose workers used company cars had a responsibility to create a "safe workplace environment".
"People like that are just irresponsible and think they are above the law, but we have had a very good response from local businesses to ensure their employees don't use cellphones when driving."
He added that, despite hands-free sets being legal, he would discourage drivers from using them. "Hands free is still a distraction." Drivers should pull over to talk.
