"More worrying, is that some people are now trying to text covertly whilst driving by keeping their cell phones low, taking their eyes off the road as they look down to text."

wow look at that what I said would happen has, congratulations govt another law to make driving more dangerous than it already is!

Kiwis can't drive anyway, using a mobile phone makes no difference.

Get out of the right hand lane!

A fine and demerit points is not the right penalty. Just confiscate the phones. We have all seen the "studies" which say things like "40% of people claim they would rather have their hand cut off than lose their cellphone". Let's call them on it.

So does this now mean that we can pull over, even on the motorway to answer a mobile call, as I have seen being done in Canterbury since the law was introduced

Actually #4 it already IS illegal to drive one handed with your elbow out the window. It would count at "dangerous driving" if you were ever stopped for it.

My prize award goes to the woman I watched (from the safety of my bus) using her rear vision mirror to put on make-up while she drove. The young dude shaving would be a clsoe second, except it was a battery shaver and he didn't use the mirror.

people can send texts without really looking at their phone you know

what? and they didnt see this coming? i was quite happy to just talk and text above the dash were i could see all the traffic but now that i may get pulled over i simply drop the phone below the dash and alternate where i look.

we (the new zealand public) told you this would happen but you (the government/police) wouldnt listen.

enjoy trying to spot the texters now.

next theyl be creating a law that says 'if you own a mobile phone you are not allowed to drive'

I agree that texting and driving is downright dangerous, but I have you know there are people out there who can simultaneously text and drive much better than people who can just drive!

Talking on a phone while driving is worse than talking to other passengers in the car. This is because the person on the other end of the phone does not know what is happening in the car. For example, when an emergency situation develops requiring the drivers full attention conversation stops, passengers can see cues to the halting of the conversation and the situation at hand. Whereas a person at the other end of the telephone line will continue talking therefore putting extra cognitive load on the drivers attention. This is why some modern cars will automatically put the call on hold when they sense the car is making an emergency manoeuvre. Learnt about this in Psychology at varsity also found out that using handsfree is no better than handheld as both cause attention to be split.

I've always thought that texting while driving was the real danger. Taking your eyes off the road and looking at the screen to read and send. Talking on a cellphone on your ear while looking at the traffic in front of you is no more dangerous than talking to the kids in the car while driving one handed with your elbow out the window (may be the safety Nazis will outlaw that too, because it makes them feel they have won). The prize must go to the driver who passed me while driving down Fitzgerald Ave, CHCH, at 60 kph reading the newspaper opened across the steering wheel. Multi-tasking... my jaw literally dropped.