Mobile phone fines crucial after ‘terrible year’ on SA roads says RAA

The RAA has warned motorists to put down their mobile phones or face steep fines. Find out when the grace period ends.

SA Police has busted thousands of drivers using their phones since the installment of mobile phone detection cameras. Pictures: SA Police.

The RAA has warned Adelaide motorists to put down their mobile phones or face steep fines and risk lives, as a three-month grace period for people photographed on their phones behind the wheel ends on Thursday.

South Australia’s first mobile phone detection cameras began operating on key metropolitan road corridors in fixed locations on June 19.

They are at areas labelled as “high risk” by police including South Rd at Torrensville, the North South Motorway at Regency Park, Port Wakefield Rd at Gepps Cross, the Southern Expressway at Darlington and Port Rd at Hindmarsh.

If the warning period is anything to go by, tens of thousands of drivers could be pinged for the $540 plus a $99 victims of crime levy and three demerit points.

A staggering 1000 drivers a day were stung by mobile phone detection cameras across Adelaide in the first month - when the grace period still applied and warning letters rather than fine notices were sent out.

Hand-held phone use while driving increases the risk of crashing by 3.6 times. Pictures: SA Police.

The total of 30,754 motorists caught would have netted about $20m into the state coffers.

SA Police revealed three drivers were caught a staggering 19 times each.

Charles Mountain, Senior Manager of Safety and Infrastructure with RAA said that with the grace period ending on Thursday “I think the public has had a reasonable period of time to be aware that the cameras exist”.

Another two drivers were stung on 18 occasions, and one person was found doing the wrong thing 16 times.

According to the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety at QUT hand-held phone use while driving increases the risk of crashing by 3.6 times, especially considering the distracting power of our modern day smartphones.

Charles Mountain says that people need to better understand the dangers of even looking at your mobile phone while driving. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

“The mobile phone is part of the whole series of distractions that are a significant contributor to the number of crashes that occur on our road network.” he said.

“If you think last year, we came off a terrible year in 2023, one of the highest losses of life we’ve seen for over 10 years, I think it was”.

“Many of those crashes occurred in the metropolitan area as well, which was unusual in terms of the lives lost. And, you know, distraction, as I said, in all forms is a key contributor to many of the crashes. And we do that with mobile phones”.

In 2023, 117 people lost their life on South Australian roads. This is the highest number of lives lost in a single calendar year since 2011.

58 people have died on South Australian roads up to September 4 this year.

Artificial intelligence identifies drivers using their mobile phones illegally and then the photo is checked by a trained officer from SA Police (SAPOL).

If you’re found to be using a mobile phone while driving, SAPOL issues an expiation notice and forwards it to your address, in much the same way speeding and red-light camera notices are currently issued.

Originally published as Mobile phone fines crucial after ‘terrible year’ on SA roads says RAA