Deadly distractions: Shocking habits behind the wheel revealed

The survey of 1,013 respondents found more than half (54%) of Australians are guilty of losing focus while driving, that’s the equivalent of 11.2 million Australians whose actions range from unsafe to unlawful.

There was a wide variety of distracted behaviours, but at the top of the list by a considerable margin (at 43%) came eating food, with driving in thongs second at 20%, equivalent to 1 in 5 people.

Some of the other alarming results included:

When it came down to the generation most likely to drive distracted, it was the younger age groups who admitted to the most offences- with 67% of Gen Z saying that they multitask behind the wheel and 24% of Gen Z text and drive, compared to only 2% of baby boomers.

Tim Bennett, car insurance expert at Finder, says distracted drivers are a growing problem, with 1,322 road crash deaths (about four people per day) in Australia in the 12 months to August 2024 – up a worrying 9.2% on the year before, according to the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE).

While not all of these deaths involved distracted driving, there is no doubt that they can have a significant impact on the safety of our roads.

In fact, Bennett says that there is no safe amount of distracted driving and that driving a vehicle requires undivided attention no matter how experienced a motorist is.

“Taking your eyes off the road for even a few seconds can have disastrous results and

daily tasks like responding to emails and applying makeup can become deadly distractions when done behind the wheel of a car,” he says.

Behind this, Bennett says is a belief by some drivers that their cars are their ‘homes on wheels’, and that this can put “other road users at risk.”

“What might seem harmless like finishing your daily skincare routine or showing affection to your driving companion could actually be very high risk.

“The road situation in front of you can change in an instant and you will not be able to react quickly enough to prevent a collision if you’re busy putting on a jumper or digging into a take-away meal,” he says.

If saving lives isn’t enough of an incentive to avoid distractions, Bennett says that there are other more ‘personal’ implications of these poor decisions.

“Drivers can cop fines, lose demerit points and even face prosecution if they have a crash and it is determined they were distracted,” he says.

“Reading through the fine print of your car insurance policy should be a sobering reminder to stay alert on the road.”

In Victoria, the minimum fine for using a mobile phone illegally starts from $577 and comes with a penalty of four demerit points, while in NSW, they range from $410- $544 and a loss of five demerit points.

While some of the other distracted driving behaviours aren’t specifically illegal, they can come under the broader road rule (which varies from state to state) relating to having “proper control of the vehicle.”

So, for example, if eating while driving interferes with a driver’s control of the vehicle, the driver may be committing an offence depending on the circumstances.

In NSW This could come with a $464 fine and three demerit points and that skyrockets to a $581 fine and four demerit points if the offence is committed in a school zone.

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