Dylan Thomsen: AA Road Safety spokesperson on why AA is advocating for higher road fines

The AA is calling for an overhaul of driving fines.

It says fines haven't been adjusted for inflation since 1999 and no longer represent a big enough deterrent. 

AA road safety spokesperson Dylan Thomsen says doubling the fines would make a good starting point - with some specific offences incurring higher penalties.

"We need to look at some specific offences, the ones that show up in crashes most often. Drunk driving, drugged driving, seatbelts distractions like cell phones and speed. And we might actually need to lift those even further to really try and make people care more about sticking to the rules."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, The AA says some of our road findes need
to maybe even double what it's ticket prices for driving
offenses to rise with inflation, pointing out that they haven't
changed since the nineties. Dylan Thompson is the AA's road
safety spokesperson with US HIGH.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Dylan, Good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Do you want to double all of them or just
some of them?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
We think as a starting point, doubling all driving offenses
from where they currently are would be a good step
for the government just to effectively catch up on inflation.
And then we think that we actually need to look
at some specific offenses, the ones that show up and
crashes most often, drunk driving, drugs, driving seat belts, distractions

(00:39):
like cell phones, and speed, and we might actually need
to lift those even further to really try and make
people care more about sticking to the rules when they're driving.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Right, So, what's the seat belt offense? What do you
get for that.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
At the moment? One hundred and fifty dollar fine?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yeah, where would you take it to?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, I guess I mean if we are just going
from a starting point of doubling it to three hundred,
we think that that's a reasonable start. If we compare
that to some of the Australian fines. They sort of
range between four hundred up to one thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
So yes, wow, okay, what about using your phone behind
the wheel? What's that of a moment?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
So currently one hundred and fifty dollars as well, like
the seatbelt defense, again over in Australia, you're looking at
sort of four hundred dollars is the lowest fine in
the state, up to a bit over twelve hundred in Queensland.
So everywhere we've looked overseas has higher fines, higher penalties

(01:44):
than New Zealand. And we also well, I certainly know
the people in my life who have gone to Australia.
They treat driving much more seriously over there in terms
of sticking to the rules because they think that the
penalties are tough and you're likely to get caught, and
when they come back home, they don't worry so much

(02:04):
about being as careful, and I think that's something we've
got to change.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Have you had a look at what kind of relationship
there is between how high the fine is and how
many people actually break that rule.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
We haven't in that sort of detail, So you know
what we do know is that, like I said, our
findes are lower than almost all similar countries we've looked at,
and as we also know, we have higher crash rates
than almost all similar countries out there. And we just

(02:38):
see this as really about changing that culture and around
driving in New Zealand. And at the moment, we don't
think that we've got penalties that actually make people think
twice about taking risks on the road.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
To change with you. Now, obviously the people who stand
to benefit from this, so obviously those of us who
don't lose our lives because of stupid stuff happening on
the rule road. Also the government who get to put
this money in their pockets, are they on board with this?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Well, I don't know. This is something that we've just
recently gone out and you know, we've been in touch
with Chris Bishop's office and I'm saying, well, at the moment,
we just know that this is something that the government
said they're keen to look at about reviewing fines and penalties,
and so we've said here are some ideas that we
think you should be looking at, and now we're waiting

(03:26):
to get a response. But I think the thing I
just like to add is when we talk about who
benefits from this, I think actually New Zealand can really
benefit from this because the impact that crashes have on
our health system, the impact that they have on our
emergency services, and the time police and volunteer firefighters and
ambulances have to spend, you know, the impact on our courts,

(03:47):
all these things. If we have better behavior, a better culture,
and less crashes, that means we're going to free up
a lot of resources that are currently just dealing with
the aftermath of some accidents.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Dylan, thank you, appreciate your time. Good luck with this.
As Dylan Thompson, spokesperson for the AA, I'm on board
with this because I tend to agree with him. We aren't.
There's not enough of a disincentive financially if you get
panged looking at your phone. And I don't know if
you saw this, but a couple of days ago there
was a story about a truckie who had a crash,
was a fatal crash. In the sixteen seconds before the
crash that truck he looked at the phone ten times.

(04:20):
So you know, even people on the road all the
time should know better.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Don't For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live
to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio