New Zealand has followed many other countries in the hand held cell phone ban after statistics showed that between the period of 2003 to 2008, 482 injury crashes and 25 fatal crashes on New Zealand roads where attributed to the use of a mobile phone.

The new law states –

Calls can be made and received only if the cell phone is “secured in a mounting fixed to the vehicle” or is fully voice-activated.
The rules apply even while stopped at a traffic light. Those caught breaking the law face an $80 fine and 20 demerit points on their licence.

The opportunity to be the first person in the country to be issued with an infringement notice proved to much of a temptation this morning. After fuelling up the thirsty Hummer I went cruising to make a little history.

I deduced that I would have two problems to overcome in order to be NZ’s first ticket holder. Firstly how would I know that I was the first in New Zealand to be issued with a ticket? The second was that Police have publicly stated that they would be only issuing warnings in the first few days or weeks of the new law. My solution to the last problem would be to ask the officer to wait a moment while I finish the call. That should be enough to infuriate one into issuing an infringement rather that a warning.

Little did I know the real problem was finding a police patrol.