A thousand drivers a day caught using mobile phones on M4, Anzac Parade
A NSW government trial using world-first camera technology to target drivers on mobile phones is set to wrap up later this month and early results indicate a thousand drivers a day are being snapped at just two Sydney locations.
There are fears the “absolutely frightening” number of drivers getting caught talking or texting behind the wheel will only get worse when the next phase of world-first camera technology is rolled out across Sydney.
The State Government’s pilot program is set to wrap up later this month, with the early results showing a thousand drivers a day are being snapped at just two locations.
During the first 25 days of the trial, which started on January 7, a whopping 20,125 drivers were captured illegally using a mobile phone at the Clunies Ross St overpass on the M4 Motorway at Prospect and Anzac Parade, Moore Park.
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By comparison, there were about 40,000 drivers fined for this same offence across NSW last financial year, minus the hi-tech cameras. The main offenders were 30 to 39-year-old drivers, receiving more than a quarter of the fines.
Transport for NSW says it will analyse the final results of the M4 and Anzac Parade program before deciding on the next locations for the new cameras.
Luckily for the drivers caught at these locations, they were only issued with a letter saying they had done the wrong thing. Otherwise, in less than a month, the government would have raked in $6.79 million in revenue.
A fine of $337 and loss of five demerit points will come into force at the two spots once the trial period ends.
The state’s peak motoring body fears the problem will only get worse when the new technology is extended to other locations.
“These statistics are absolutely frightening,” NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said.
“Unless drivers put their phones down, the number of people getting caught will only skyrocket with this new technology.
“We don’t want this behaviour to become the next drink-driving or speeding problem. We’ve spent decades trying to crack down on both of those.”
BRAZEN ACTS
A NewsLocal investigation has backed up the concerns raised in the M4 and Anzac Park program, along with an earlier trial at the Prospect site in October, when 11,000 drivers were snapped using their phones.
We spent an hour at four locations across Sydney northwest on Friday afternoon and caught a total of 33 people either texting or talking while driving.
Most were seen at traffic lights as they waited in peak-hour traffic. A dead giveaway was fellow motorists honking their horns to get drivers’ heads out of their phones.
One of the worst offenders was a woman holding her phone up with her left hand as she attempted to change lanes in peak-hour traffic at the corner of Parramatta and Nyrang roads in Lidcombe.
And a P-plate driver was so brazen at the same location that when he saw the Advertiser’s photographer catch him out on his phone as he waited in traffic lights, he laughed and continued to text as he drove off.
Of the four locations we tested, the most drivers we saw illegally using their phones — 10 — came at the corner Windsor and Merriville roads in Kellyville.
It was followed by the Lidcombe location (9), the corner of Victoria and Chatham roads in West Ryde (8), and the corner of Pennant Hills and Castle Hill roads (6).
POLICE ALARM
The Hills’ police Superintendent Jason Joyce says he is alarmed by this many drivers behaving this badly behind the wheel.
“I would not object to the use of mobile-phone detection cameras in The Hills at all and I think it would be useful,” Supt Joyce said.
“It is incredibly dangerous (using a phone while driving) because it distracts the driver from concentrating on what they should be doing, which is driving.
“There has been numerous incidents which have resulted in fatal motor-vehicle accidents or significant injuries. Yet people keep flouting the laws and continue to use their mobile phones.”
In 2018, The Hills police and The Hills’ highway patrol unit issued 233 drivers with tickets for using their phones while driving.
Supt Joyce said The Hills police would continue to hold special operations targeting offenders.
DRIVING HOME MESSAGE
The NRMA’s Peter Khoury says it will take the loss of licences — and even worse — for people to realise their wrongdoing of texting or talking while driving.
“And that’s exactly what’s going to happen with the government’s tougher penalties,” he said.
“There are clear and obvious risks of people behaving like this behind the wheel — and we’ve got to get people to stop.”
A recent NRMA report into the impact of smartphone distractions behind the wheel found over one-in-five drivers were involved in a near-miss because the other driver was using the phone while driving.
The report, Can’t talk. Driving, which includes the findings of a survey of 1037 members across NSW and the ACT, found that almost one-fifth (19 per cent) of motorists read texts while driving and 18 per cent use their phone illegally.
While almost all drivers (99 per cent) acknowledged it was illegal to use a phone without a hands-free or Bluetooth, 15 per cent believed they would not likely get caught breaking the law.
More than half of people surveyed (55 per cent) are using their phones legally.
TfNSW says that from 2012 to 2017, there were 138 casualty crashes involving a driver/rider using a handheld mobile phone. Those crashes resulted in 10 deaths and 177 injuries.
In 2018, there were an additional 20 casualty crashes, including two fatalities and 35 people injured.
There have been no fatal crashes involving mobile phones recorded so far in NSW this year.
However, TfNSW concedes that crash numbers are under-reported due to the difficulty of obtaining evidence of mobile phone use at accident scenes.
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