Mobile phone detection cameras reveal ugly truth

The stats don't lie – thousands of Australian drivers are still using their mobile phones while driving, despite the well publicised risks involved.

New figures released by the NSW state government show that just a week after switching on its world-first mobile phone detection cameras a total of 3303 drivers have been busted using their phone while driving, which is illegal.

Normally, motorists would be fined $344 and be penalised up to five demerit points -- and twice that during double-demerit periods. If caught in a school zone the fine rises to $457.

However, the NSW government has allowed a three-month grace period, so those caught will not be fined.

Australia's largest state is the first jurisdiction in the world to use the new technology, in a bid to change driver behaviour.

NSW road minister Andrew Constance confirmed a total of 773,532 vehicles were checked in the first week, and said drivers nabbed breaking the law are lucky they're only getting a warning letter.

"At 60km/h if you look at your phone while driving for just two seconds, you travel 33 metres blind -- it’s dangerous, it’s stupid and it needs to stop," he said.

"Around 500 drivers a day are getting pinged by these cameras doing the wrong thing. With double demerits starting Friday we need drivers to get the message and get off the phone, otherwise they risk killing themselves or someone innocent on our roads."

The mobile phone detection cameras went live on December 1, 2019, and there are many other countries around the globe watching the rollout.

Following a six-month trial between January and June 2019, which pinged over 100,000 drivers doing the wrong thing with their phones, there are now fixed and mobile (trailer-mounted) cameras in operation across NSW,

However, the trial has seen an improvement in driver behaviour, says the NSW roads minister.

"I’d like to thank drivers doing the right thing, we have seen a reduction in the noncompliance rate by two thirds since we first trialed the technology earlier this year," he said.

There are plans to expand the mobile phone detection camera program in NSW, as other states including Queensland and Victoria consider installing the technology.

When evidence from the cameras begins issuing infringements in earnest from March 2020 in NSW, it has the potential to lead to bottlenecks that could bring the court system to a standstill, claim legal experts.

The executive director of transport for NSW’s Centre for Road Safety, Bernard Carlon, pointed to independent modelling that shows the new mobile phone detection cameras have the potential to prevent roughly 100 fatal and serious injury crashes over five years.

This year's national road toll to the end of the November is up by 4.6 per cent, from 1166 to 1183 road fatalities.

South Australian fatalities are up just over 40 per cent year on year, while the Northern Territory has seen the biggest drop in road deaths in 2019, down almost 50 per cent.

"We need to see a steep behavioral change from motorists to save lives," said Carlon.