Using your mobile phone while driving will cost you $344 and 5 demerit points from today
From today anyone caught using a mobile phone while driving will cop a $344 fine and five demerit points, as a three-month no-fine warning period — which captured images of 31,000 drivers flouting the law — ends.
NSW
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Drivers sneakily using their mobile phones below the steering wheel and on their lap have been delivered a blunt warning: “You can no longer hide”.
New images captured by world-first cameras during a three-month no-fine warning period prove NSW motorists are still trying to conceal their phone to send text messages and check social media, but from today they will pay a hefty price for putting lives at risk.
Drivers caught on camera illegally using their phones will now cop a $344 fine and five demerit points — 10 points during double demerit periods.
The cameras checked 9.2 million vehicles, with more than 31,300 drivers photographed breaking the law and issued warning letters in the three-month warning period, the equivalent of about $10.8 million in penalties, had they been charged.
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NSW Centre for Road Safety executive director Bernard Carlon said the hi-tech cameras, operating in both fixed and portable locations across the state, sent a clear message to drivers to stop using their phones illegally.
“You can no longer hide this dangerous behaviour,” he said.
“We need people to understand it could be anywhere, any time — so just don’t do it.”
A new shocking picture taken by a portable camera on the Pacific Highway north of Newcastle shows a truck driver with both feet up and off the pedals while using a mobile phone with one hand.
NSW Transport and Roads Minister Andrew Constance said the cameras were “as much about protecting innocent people who don’t deserve to be hit and hurt as they are about catching those distracted by illegal phone use”.
Despite the worrying 31,300 drivers snapped using their phones since December 1, Mr Constance said: “We’re seeing more than 99 per cent of drivers doing the right thing, so when we compare this with the findings from the pilot last year, it is clear drivers are starting to get the message.”
A six-month trial last year involving one portable and two fixed cameras pictured more than 100,000 drivers on their devices.
But Mr Carlon said even though there was a reduction in the rate of offending drivers during the no-fine period the numbers caught were still “way too many”.
“More and more we’re seeing people use text and social media and that is even more risky,” Mr Carlon said.
“That two seconds of looking down doubles your risk of a crash and you also, in that two seconds, at 60km/h, travel 33m and so it’s a really stupid thing to do.”
Under NSW road rules, motorists can’t hold or rest a mobile phone on any part of their body, including their lap.
By 2023, up to 45 cameras will operate and are expected to perform about 135 million vehicle checks each year.
Minister for Regional Roads Paul Toole said a decision to “pick up your phone can have fatal consequences”.
Originally published as Using your mobile phone while driving will cost you $344 and 5 demerit points from today
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