‘It’s not rocket science’: Basic road rule infringement costing drivers millions in fines

DRIVERS are “throwing their money away” by ignoring some of the most basic road rules. These are the ones we’re most guilty of.

AUSSIES are disobeying some of our most basic road rules — and it’s costing them big time.

A new report from Queensland’s top motoring body RACQ has listed five of our road’s most fundamental rules, ones every driver knows but chooses to ignore.

FAILING TO STOP AT A STOP SIGN

The penalty in Queensland for not coming to a complete stop is $378 and three demerit points, meaning drivers paid more than $3 million in fines.

Between November 2016 and November 2017, 9270 Brisbane drivers were fined for disobeying the little red sign.

Despite what you might have been told, there is no three-second rule requiring you to be stationary for three seconds after coming to a stop. All you need to do is come to a complete stop at or before the stop line before proceeding.

Drivers were terrible at actually stopping at stop signs.

DISOBEYING ‘NO RIGHT TURN’ SIGNS

The signs are as simple as can be but it didn’t stop more than 1400 Brisbane drivers from disobeying “no right turn” signs.

Turning right when the sign says you shouldn’t equals three lost demerit points and a $100 fine.

Drivers regularly turned right when they shouldn’t.

KEEPING A SAFE DISTANCE

Six hundred and nineteen Brisbane drivers were penalised last year for following a vehicle too closely.

That infringement also comes with a loss of one demerit point and a $294 fine.

NSW and Queensland drivers ignore safe distances.

DRIVING WITHOUT LIGHTS ON

A whopping 429 drivers were caught for failing to turn their headlights on when driving at night or in hazardous conditions, which attracts a $126 fine.

Not putting headlights on when driving at night or in hazardous conditions was something done by more than 400 drivers. Picture: Tracey Nearmy

DRIVING WITHOUT L-PLATES

Brisbane’s L-platers also copped fines after eight of them were caught driving without their plates.

A handful of L-platers were caught not putting the right plates on their car.

But Queensland isn’t the only state guilty of turning a blind eye to basic road rules.

Victoria Police data from 2016, the latest available, revealed cops issued a whopping 375,000 fines to rule-breakers over the year.

In 2016, 27,000 Victorians were fined for flouting road signs or traffic lights.

The southern state was particularly bad at ignoring no-turning signs — 10,139 drivers were fined — while a further 8281 were fined for running red lights and 3931 were forced to dip into their pockets for ignoring stop signs.

RACQ spokeswoman Lauren Ritchie said the Brisbane statistics proved drivers were throwing their money away.

“It should be one of the easiest rules to understand but last year in Brisbane alone we saw more than 3000 drivers fined for not stopping at a stop sign,” she said.

• Road rule Australian drivers want banned

• Australia’s weirdest road rules from state to state

“Stop signs mean you must come to a fully controlled stop behind the line before you take off again. It’s not rocket science.

“To flout the law like this is really a dumb behaviour.”

In NSW, drivers are also most guilty of ignoring stop signs and red lights.

Interestingly in NSW, drivers are fined the same amount, $433, for not stopping at a yellow light. They’ll also lose three demerit points for it.

But if there’s one fundamental road rule NSW drivers have become particularly famous for ignoring — thanks to the police force’s social media — it’s failure to indicate.

NSW Police regularly use the lack of blinker use as social media fodder.

#BREAKING First look at a blinker being used in NSW. pic.twitter.com/OoGzRjMxni

— NSW Police (@nswpolice) April 24, 2017

NSW drivers were so bad at keeping a safe distance that the state government’s road safety organisation even listed it as one of its most misunderstood road rules in 2014.

In its 2014 report, Road Safety listed safe distance as the eighth most misunderstood road rule.

“Safe following distances may vary depending on the conditions, the type of vehicle and the speed at which the vehicle is travelling. As a general rule, when following a vehicle, the driver should travel three seconds behind the vehicle in front to provide sufficient time to avoid a crash,” Transport for NSW explains.

Indicating off a roundabout is also listed in the top 10 misunderstood rules.

While WA Police was unable to provide itemised statistics on what road rules its drivers were blatantly ignoring, the western state did have some damning numbers on its worst offenders.

In December last year, WA Police launched a world-first project sending “moral” or “deterrent” messages to thousands of its highest at-risk drivers.

In an attempt to reduce road trauma, police sent letters to 14,000 of its worst drivers who had been given at least two serious infringements in the past two years.

Despite the attempt at deterring the drivers, an analysis done nine months after the letters were sent found a third of the drivers had been caught again, according to Perth Now.

And while South Australia might be known as one of the nation’s most relaxed states, a 2016 report from the Australia Institute found it had the most “unfair” level of speed enforcement — and the highest fines for its drivers.

From 2014-15, South Australia had the nation’s highest average traffic fines.

Revenue from fines for that time period equated to every South Australian forking out $103 for breaking a road rule.