It’s fast becoming a modern scourge on the nation’s roads, much to the frustration of senior police, like Victoria's Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer.
"Some of the behaviour we have seen has just been gob-smacking. We have people who are taking selfies of themselves with kids in the back seat. We have got people watching movies. We have got people responding to a social media application,” said Fryer.
Assistant Commissioner Fryer says thirty-thousand infringement notices were issued in Victoria alone last year. “It’s sad to say that is a drop in the ocean. There have been recent surveys done nationally to say in the last 12 months 60 per cent of road users have admitted picking up their phone while driving,” added Fryer.
Hi-tech red light-style cameras that can photograph texting drivers from above are now being triallled.
But even with the range of new offence detection technologies available, there’s a hitch for police in Victoria.
Currently, they don’t have the power to hold the registered driver of the car responsible for the mobile phone use caught on camera – unlike their counterparts in New South Wales, where road safety laws recently changed.
The changes brought mobile phone infringements in line with other camera-detected traffic offences where the ticket is sent to the vehicle owner.
30-year-old Satinder Singh is a real estate agent based in Melbourne and cannot resist using his phone even while he is behind the wheel.
Mr Singh says he takes at least 4 to 5 calls and sometimes even texts whilst driving from his home in a south-eastern suburb to his office near the city, which is almost a 30 km long stretch.
Mr Singh who has so far managed to flout the law considers himself lucky to not have been slapped with a $476 fine and a loss of four demerit points, but he is definitely playing with fire.
Victoria police have deployed extra force to contain mobile phone related offences and say that there has been a 12-13 per cent rise in the number of such offences in the last one year alone.
Mr Fryer who appealed to the motorists to stay clear of phones or use the “do not disturb” feature while the vehicle is in motion said the community is failing to understand the real impact of such offences despite the existence of stiff laws.
NRMA road safety director Dimitra Vlahamitros says they're welcome changes. “Over 1200 people have lost their lives over the last year across Australia on our roads and we need to look at anything and everything to reduce that number. It's unacceptable,” she said.
She says a recent NRMA report found one in five motorists had been involved in a near-accident because the other driver was using a mobile. "People need to be caught. They need to know they are doing the wrong thing and they need to be penalised. The fines are there, they're very hefty and they just need to be enforced every way possible,” she added.
But road safety campaigner Norm Robinson, who lost his son Luke in a road accident, fears those heavy fines just aren't working. “I would hope that they could bring in a system where your phone was impounded for seven days,” he said.
He's hoping the inconvenience of losing a phone for a week might just prove more of a deterrent to potentially deadly behaviour.
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