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August 6, 2010 3:00pm by David Farrar

Only in New Zealand

is it illegal to drive a motor vehicle and use a cellphone, yet legal to pilot a helicopter and text.

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Comment18

NZ Politics
cellphone use in cars

Comments (18)

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Adolf Fiinkensein

Yes but it can be quite fatal.
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August 6, 2010 3:08pm
Graeme Edgeler

Have you anything to back up the claim that this is only the case in New Zealand?
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August 6, 2010 3:14pm
Arnold Rimmer

Laws are made in response to people doing stupid things (like driving and texting. Drivers were warned not to text but they ignored it, so the law was introduced.)

Up till now there haven’t been any pilots stupid enough to text and cause accidents.

So now that there are pilots stupid enough, it must be time to introduce a no-piloting-and-texting law.
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August 6, 2010 3:27pm
brucehoult

This is such bullshit.

If you can’t fly and use the radio to talk to other pilots or ATC at the same time then you can’t get a pilot’s license. A cell phone is just another kind of radio to talk on.
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August 6, 2010 3:30pm
trout

A topdressing pilot was killed in Opotiki while on a cellphone. He had previously been warned about texting when flying.
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August 6, 2010 3:31pm
spector

Not much point making a law you can’t police. You can’t exactly cruise along in a police helicopter hoping to spot a pilot sending a text.
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August 6, 2010 3:32pm
BeaB

Legal but not compulsory or intelligent.
I recall a stormy beach in Carolina where there was a $500 fine for jumping into the waves because of the risk of drowning.
I am afraid we have a lot of dumb people in NZ and making even more laws doesn’t make them any brainier.
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August 6, 2010 3:36pm
ben

Well, not for long. I’m sure Steven Joyce will be right on this with new anti-texting-while-piloting-light-planes legislation that protects us from ourselves.

Thanks Steven. New Zealand. Socialists everywhere, in fact.
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August 6, 2010 3:37pm
RRM

Two thoughts on this:

(1) If you are in a helicopter, and you can see another helicopter, either you are still on the tarmac, or it’s a hella busy day up there. There’s just not the same risk of collision that exists when tens of thousands of vehicles are funnelled through busy narrow corridors e.g. roads.

(2) Next to the level of training and skill of a chopper pilot, and the discipline that they operate to, people like me that only have drivers’ licenses are semi-trained monkeys at best.
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August 6, 2010 3:40pm
Mr Magister

Not much point making a law you can’t police. You can’t exactly cruise along in a police helicopter hoping to spot a pilot sending a text.

No chance of revenue gathering —> no law.
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August 6, 2010 4:22pm
Guy Fawkes

They have the perfect right to kill themselves should they choose.

Only if anyone else is killed or maimed should their estate be sequestrated to pay any damages in consequence.
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August 6, 2010 4:22pm
scrubone

1. “here’s just not the same risk of collision that exists ” – um, but then there’s always the ground…
2. “If you can’t fly and use the radio to talk to other pilots or ATC at the same time then you can’t get a pilot’s license. ” – except at least one of the cases concerns texting. Is it compulsory to be able to write emails and fly at the same time?
3. Enforcement – like most rules, it’s when you break them *and something goes wrong* when the hammer comes down.
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August 6, 2010 5:53pm
WebWrat

Whilst flying a pilot has to do lots of things in the cockpit, i.e. looking at maps, writing in logs, changing radio frequencies, talking to passengers, pissing into a bottle and etc.

However if you are flying below the legal limit over a flat calm lake with no depth perception, you would probably not do any of these things.
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August 6, 2010 6:43pm
krazykiwi

So we’re going to legislate away sources of risk in the air?

Use of cellphones cause an issue? Legislate to outlaw cellphone.

Boeing 737 develops fault? Legislate to outlaw Boeing use.

So many banning opportunities. So little time.
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August 6, 2010 6:56pm
godruelf

Wasn’t there a pilot trying to go into Christchurch a few years ago using a cellphone before he hit the ground???
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August 6, 2010 8:54pm
krazykiwi

@godrueif

Wasn’t there a pilot trying to go into Christchurch a few years ago using a cellphone before he hit the ground???

Quite possibly. And there have been countless other aircraft accidents where pilots where using the radio, adjusting trip computers, setting trim, managing fuel systems or just lackadaisically looking at a magazine. If the objective is to attribute accident causation to some activity, then how many other pilot activities need investigation and banning?
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August 6, 2010 9:03pm
V

@krazykiwi

Don’t forget that investigations also found these people breathing and blinking prior to the crash. Time for an immediate ban.
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August 6, 2010 9:30pm
krazykiwi

@V – yeah and I heard a ginger put a F15 in the side of mountain a while back. Compulsory hair dye – surely?
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August 6, 2010 9:42pm

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