Opinion: Crack down now on idiot drivers glued to their dumb phones

With the technology in place this month, why wait till November to start fining drivers for life-threatening behaviour, asks Kylie Lang.

When cameras to catch drivers breaking mobile phone laws will be operational within weeks, why wait months to penalise these foolish individuals?

July 26 is when the technology is deployed and July 26 is when the $1033 fines and four demerit points should start, not November.

A toothless tiger – aka warning notices – won’t stop law breakers who endanger their own lives and others.

It’s not as if Queensland motorists haven’t had ample warning.

A go-softly approach on an otherwise excellent initiative fails to reflect the seriousness and extent of the offence.

I am sure I’m not the only one who has come a cropper thanks to idiots on their phones when their eyes should be on the road.

But having your car rear-ended and off to the panel beaters is at the lower end of outcomes.

How many people have to die before motorists get it?

Phones are weapons of destruction when used behind the wheel.

Around 29 people are killed and thousands seriously injured every year in Queensland as a result of crashes involving driver distraction, according to the RACQ.

This is not a new problem.

In 2014, my colleague Janelle Miles wrote a powerful story following the death of 20-year-old Kiere Nebe Rose, whose ute drifted into the path of a truck on the Old Warrego Highway near Dalby.

Ms Rose was texting at the time of the crash.

In fact, in the lead-up to this avoidable tragedy, she sent or received 25 texts in as many minutes.

The loss of a young life is as stark a reminder as anyone should need.

But years later, people still flout the rules.

They are glued to their phones as if their life depended on it – and, in the worst way imaginable, it does.

“Intextification”, so dubbed by researchers because it’s like getting behind the wheel while intoxicated, is rampant.

A driver and passenger snapped with mobile phones

But here are some sobering truths: sending a text in a moving car is akin to driving with a bag over your head for more than four seconds.

At 100km/h, that’s equivalent to crossing a football field with your eyes closed.

Even a second’s distraction at 60km/h takes your eyes off the road for more than 16m, according to research.

The only winners in this sorry affair are government coffers.

In February 2020, the Queensland Government increased the penalty for illegally using a mobile phone while driving from $400 to $1000, and from three demerit points to four.

From July to December last year it trialled the use of the covert cameras that will now become permanent fixtures.

During those six months, more than 15,000 drivers were nabbed.

This week Transport Minister Mark Bailey warned motorists they could be “caught anywhere, anytime, whether they’re driving in the city or on a regional highway”.

Some cameras will be mobile, with their locations kept secret.

Predictably, bleeding hearts have decried what they claim is an invasion of privacy.

People should, according to their logic, be allowed to do what they like in their cars, and stuff the consequences.

One Courier-Mail reader commented: “Next step will be to use the same cameras to fine people for not wearing masks. And after that for fining people for minor infringements. And then for leaving their designated lock down area. This is the world of George Orwell, 1984, and Big Brother. And it is not pretty.”

It’s far uglier to have rising carnage on our roads.

Under new rules, also starting on July 26, drivers will be banned from placing mobile phones on their laps.

They won’t be able to hold a phone in their hands, including to pass it to a passenger, while a vehicle is moving.

These measures are not designed to curb personal freedoms but to protect precious lives.

You can’t legislate against stupidity, but you can try to save people from themselves.

Don’t wait until November to get cracking.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail

A mobile camera unit beside a far north Queensland highway

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Brisbane couple Steve and Jane Wilson saving Lamb House from ruin, and investing upwards of $15 million to ensure the Kangaroo Point landmark remains a living piece of Brisbane history. Good on them.

Half-price movie tickets. Dendy Portside’s deal on 4-7pm sessions has been extended to August 4. Stop for a bite afterwards at a local Hamilton restaurant – Gusto da Gianni is my pick.

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Queenslanders who think they are above wearing masks, using the check-in app, or getting vaccinated. Covid-19 isn’t a conspiracy. It’s real and requires real action.

People who refuse to put a leash on their dogs when walking them. Dangerous, stupid and selfish. As of July 1, the fine is $275. If I were a council officer I could be bringing in upwards of $1000 a day.