Young Drivers Use Phones Even When They Know They're Being Filmed

[redsonic]

Disturbing:

ABC News

[warthog1]

Disturbing:

ABC News

"Texting whilst driving increases the crash risk by 23 times"

"If you look at your phone for 2 secs whilst travelling at 60kmh you travel 30 metres. Anything could happen in those 30 metres"

It is endemic. I strongly believe that is a major factor behind our road toll rising again.

[uart]

Disturbing:

ABC News

Wow. Just Wow!

The level of distraction and lack of attention to where they were going in that video is just frightening!

[yugyug]

Full on! Its mental to think we share the roads with such cretins.

Its not just kids though, I see mums and dads and business people all do it when I ride. I used to sometimes knock on windows at lights and tell them to put it down, but stopped because it began to seem petty and anti-social. I might start up again.

[trailgumby]

It is getting much worse. Even just walking along the streets in the CBD, everyone is on their phones. That behaviour inevitably carries on to driving.Watching that video and seeing them take their eyes off the road for 2-3 seconds at a time was terrifying.

It doesn't surprise me to read the risk of collision increases 23 times. That young airhead with the headscarf was just appalling - it's a pity it took one of her friends suffering traumatic brain injury to wake up.

If it is as dangerous as drink driving (and it is at least as dangerous) then the penalties need to be the same as drink driving: Immediate license suspension and a court appearance. 4 demerits ad a $467 fine is NOWHERE near enough.

[warthog1]

If it is as dangerous as drink driving (and it is at least as dangerous) then the penalties need to be the same as drink driving: Immediate license suspension and a court appearance. 4 demerits ad a $467 fine is NOWHERE near enough.

Well put, I agree.

[warthog1]

Full on! Its mental to think we share the roads with such cretins.

Its not just kids though, I see mums and dads and business people all do it when I ride. I used to sometimes knock on windows at lights and tell them to put it down, but stopped because it began to seem petty and anti-social. I might start up again.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-29/o ... se/8559630

Young people might seem like they are glued to their phones these days but police say that behind the wheel P-platers resist using them because they do not want to accumulate demerit points.

"The worst offenders are the older drivers on our roads," Inspector Brooks says.


"We know with younger drivers, they're well aware that if they do [use their mobile phone while driving] they'll lose their licence by the side of the road."

Police statistics show that in 2016, 900 P-plater drivers were fined, compared with more than 38,000 fully licensed drivers.

Seven hundred and thirty five drivers were caught talking or texting in school zones.

[uart]

"Texting whilst driving increases the crash risk by 23 times"

It's good to see that quantified. I had to check the source for that quote, and wikipedia has this to say:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texting_while_driving

On July 27, 2009, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute released preliminary findings of their study of driver distraction in commercial vehicles.[23] Several naturalistic driving studies, of long-haul trucks as well as lighter vehicles driving six million combined miles, used video cameras to observe the drivers and road. Researchers observed 4,452 "safety-critical" events, which includes crashes, near crashes, safety-critical events, and lane deviations. 81% of the "safety-critical" events involved some type of driver distraction. Text messaging had the greatest relative risk, with drivers of heavy vehicles or trucks being more than 23 times more likely to experience a safety-critical event when texting.[24]

If that's the case with professional drivers then it's probably at least as bad with regular drivers, and even more so with the young and inexperienced. That puts texting quite firmly on par with high range drink driving, so yeah equivalence of penalties with drink driving would go a long way towards helping to control this escalating problem.

Given that repeat offenders for high range drink driving often get jail time, making texting while driving equivalent to this would make people totally rethink their phone use in my opinion.

[redsonic]

"The worst offenders are the older drivers on our roads," Inspector Brooks says.


"We know with younger drivers, they're well aware that if they do [use their mobile phone while driving] they'll lose their licence by the side of the road."

Police statistics show that in 2016, 900 P-plater drivers were fined, compared with more than 38,000 fully licensed drivers.

Seven hundred and thirty five drivers were caught talking or texting in school zones.[/i]

As usual, this "statistic" proves nothing other than the fact that there are many more fully licensed drivers on the road than there are P platers.

[warthog1]

"The worst offenders are the older drivers on our roads," Inspector Brooks says.


"We know with younger drivers, they're well aware that if they do [use their mobile phone while driving] they'll lose their licence by the side of the road."

Police statistics show that in 2016, 900 P-plater drivers were fined, compared with more than 38,000 fully licensed drivers.

Seven hundred and thirty five drivers were caught talking or texting in school zones.[/i]

As usual, this "statistic" proves nothing other than the fact that there are many more fully licensed drivers on the road than there are P platers.

It proves that age alone is not an accurate determinant of stupidity.
We probably knew that already though.

[jindydiver]

"The worst offenders are the older drivers on our roads," Inspector Brooks says.


"We know with younger drivers, they're well aware that if they do [use their mobile phone while driving] they'll lose their licence by the side of the road."

Police statistics show that in 2016, 900 P-plater drivers were fined, compared with more than 38,000 fully licensed drivers.

Seven hundred and thirty five drivers were caught talking or texting in school zones.[/i]

As usual, this "statistic" proves nothing other than the fact that there are many more fully licensed drivers on the road than there are P platers.

Yes, knowing the ratio of P licensed drivers to "full" licensed drivers fined tells us nothing unless we also know the ratio of these license types who were not fined. In this case, half the information is no information at all.

[jindydiver]

From a recent story.....

“P-platers make up 8.0 per cent of all driver licence holders, yet their crashes account for 15 per cent of all fatalities on NSW roads,’ said Melinda Pavey, minister for roads, maritime and freight.

Given that the Police claim less than 3% of fines go to P platers they may be correct.


http://www.caradvice.com.au/584240/nsw- ... ian-model/

[redsonic]

From a recent story.....

“P-platers make up 8.0 per cent of all driver licence holders, yet their crashes account for 15 per cent of all fatalities on NSW roads,’ said Melinda Pavey, minister for roads, maritime and freight.

Given that the Police claim less than 3% of fines go to P platers they may be correct.


http://www.caradvice.com.au/584240/nsw- ... ian-model/

Thanks for the extra info. With that data, the police statement is a lot more convincing.
If, as the police surmise, P platers are avoiding phone use because of the potential of immediate license loss, Trailgumby's suggestion that we make the consequences of phone use (for all drivers) much more significant makes a lot of sense.

[warthog1]

Let's not forget p platers are also targeted for more scrutiny by police.

[Mulger bill]

Given that repeat offenders for high range drink driving often get jail time, making texting while driving equivalent to this would make people totally rethink their phone use in my opinion.

Still gotta catch them at it, it won't be a cheap and easy job like velocity tax devices

[Farmer Elvis]

20 years ago I was in Sydney for my 5th wedding anniversary, being a farmer and used to having breakfast, packing my lunch box and going to work, I couldn't believe all people walking down the street with a coffee cup in their hand on their way to work, had my 25th recently and my lovely wife decided she'd take me to Melbourne, I couldn't believe the people walking down the street on the phone, with a coffee, none of them were concentrating, I find it amazing

[Scott_C]

I think we still have a long way to go with getting appropriate penalties:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/quee ... 3c5e746a8f

Doonan woman Ellise Cherie Chalk was driving along Eumundi-Noosa Rd when she crashed into the back of Suzanne Latimer’s car as she was waiting to turn right onto Don Napier Rd at 5.27pm on August 24, 2016.

Crown prosecutor Sarah Dennis told the court that at 5.22pm – five minutes before the crash – Chalk sent a photo showing a piece of paper with writing on it placed up against her steering wheel to her sister.

Ms Dennis argued that if Chalk had been focusing on the road, she would have used an overtaking lane to the left of Mrs Latimer’s car, which allowed traffic to continue to flow while cars were waiting to turn right.

Chalk was sentenced to two years’ jail, wholly suspended for three years, and was disqualified from driving for two years.

Kill someone through distracted driving 5 minutes after using your mobile to take a photo of a sheet of paper held up against the steering wheel and go directly... home... do not go to jail and get back to driving 2 years later.