Surprise age group with habit of using phone while driving

A surprise age group has been revealed as the state’s worst offenders when it comes to using a mobile phone use at the wheel.

Drivers aged in their thirties are the state’s worst offenders for mobile phone use at the wheel.

Drivers aged in their thirties are the state’s worst offenders for mobile phone use at the wheel.

Senior police say they are surprised at the numbers from that group, many of whom would be parents with more than a decade of driving behind them.

A total of 4498 full licence-holders out of 13776 busted statewide were in the 30 to 39 age range.

That represents 32 per cent of motorists handed phone-use penalty notices in Victoria last year.

Acting Assistant Commissioner for road policing Justin Goldsmith said it might have been expected younger drivers would offend more.

“It’s an interesting demographic. To me, it says it (the behaviour) is more ingrained,” he said.

“I’m sure many are parents and quite possibly had kids in the car. You’d think they’d know better.”

Other significant age groups were 2787 for the 40 to 49 bracket and 2452 for drivers aged 25 to 29.

Lesser numbers in the 18 to 24 grouping gave some hope younger drivers were developing the right habits, Mr Goldsmith said.

The use of that technology is a major distraction for many drivers.

But there were significant numbers of learner drivers caught on the phone.

A total of 1635 or 31 a week were nabbed, 986 of them young males.

Links to smashes remain of alarm to police.

Their statistics show there were 86 collisions in which one or more people were seriously injured.

That number probably only represents a portion of the true accident total.

Minor nose-to-tail crashes where no one is injured are rarely reported to police so the cause is not investigated.

Victoria’s Department of Justice is part of a national approach to updating laws on the use of vehicle consoles which display information transmitted via bluetooth.

Mr Goldsmith said there was no doubt the use of that technology was also a major distraction for drivers.

“Scrolling through Spotify on your console is as high-risk as using your mobile phone,” Mr Goldsmith said.

He said those who chose to use the phone on the road are now at great risk of being caught because COVID-19 demands on the force were gone.

“Our enforcement levels are back to pre-pandemic levels,” Mr Goldsmith said.