Use it Lose it campaign: Young men on mobiles behind bulk of serious accidents
FORTY years ago, it was drink driving. Today, an epidemic of mobile-phone using motorists are putting our lives on the line and there’s one group of offenders causing the most harm.
NSW
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YOUNG male drivers are being held responsible for the bulk of serious car crashes involving mobile phones on NSW roads.
An alarming picture of the worst offenders has emerged after The Sunday Telegraph on the weekend launched a campaign to see texting motorists lose their licences.
The move came after a 22-year-old driver — allegedly distracted for up to 20 seconds by his mobile phone — ploughed into two police officers at a roadside breath test in southwest Sydney.
USE IT LOSE IT CAMPAIGN: IT’S TIME TO CHANGE THE LAW
The driver, Jakob Thornton, fits the mould of the motorist most likely to cause such a crash.
According to the NSW Centre for Road Safety, male drivers under age 26 were responsible for a majority of the serious casualty crashes involving mobile phones between 2008 and 2016.
The devastating example of Thornton’s alleged driver distraction on Friday night left Senior Constable Jonathon Wright an amputee.
His highway patrol colleague, Senior Constable Matthew Foley, suffered a broken leg.
The case has highlighted the epidemic endangering motorists on the state’s roads, with tens of thousands of motorists caught flouting the rules every year.
And police are under no illusion that is just the tip of the iceberg.
NSW Police handed out 42,000 fines last year to drivers caught using their mobile phones, an offence that attracts a $330 fine and loss of four demerit points.
According to NSW Centre for Road Safety, 41 per cent of people involved in serious casualty crashes where mobile use was a factor between 2008 and 2016 were under 26-years-old.
Seventeen per cent were females under 26 and 21 per cent were males aged 26 to 39.
“We are where we were 40 years ago with drink driving,” NRMA’s Peter Khoury said.
“It took us a long time to change it from being a social norm to becoming socially unacceptable.
“We don’t think the message is getting through but hopefully what has happened in the last couple of weeks will change that.”
These types of crashes also appear to be increasing in frequency.
There were four fatal and serious injury car accidents involving mobile phone use in 2008 compared to 13 in 2015.
However driver distraction emerged as a factor in only 9 per cent of serious or fatal crashes between 2008 and 2016, with authorities warning mobile phone use was under-reported problem.
USE IT, LOSE IT
Touch the phone, lose your licence: that is the only message that will get through.
This accident must be the final straw — a young cop nearly died and is now permanently disabled because a young man allegedly couldn’t keep his hand off his phone.
The present $330 fine and four-demerit point penalty is not enough.
Sometimes answering a call or sending a text feels momentously important but nothing is as important as a human life.
The Sunday Telegraph has launched the Use It, Lose It campaign to have drivers caught using mobile phones stripped of their licence.