The proliferation of mobile phone use in recent years has, unfortunately, been parallel to an increase in the number of crashes on Victoria’s roads.
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It seems a devil-may-care attitude has been adopted by many motorists who think they either won’t get caught illegally using their mobile phones while driving and/or their mobile phone use behind the wheel will no result in an accident.
And they would be wrong on both counts.
According to research, being distracted by a mobile phone while driving means their response time in a dangerous situation would be equivalent to driving while over .05.
And new figures show almost 113,000 fines have been issued to motorists for driving while illegally using a mobile phone in Victoria in the past three years.
So, you will get caught.
The state’s top traffic policemen, Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer, agrees the increase in fines only goes to prove a sometimes fatal problem in the community.
Mr Fryer’s stern warning should come as a reality check for all drivers, in that he says society's "thirst for connectivity is killing people”.
"We know that mobile phones were involved in fatalities last year, and already this year we have a number of cases where we know that mobile phone use has been partially responsible for road deaths," Mr Fryer said.
TAC chief executive officer Joe Calafiore said: “Unless you are totally focused on driving, you're not in a position to respond when something unexpected happens. If you look down at your phone for two seconds while driving at 100km/h, you will travel more than 55 meters blind."
Shock results from a recent survey also prove Victorian motorists are not heeding warnings from police and other driving experts. In the recent survey, a staggering 60 per cent of Victorian motorists admitted to using their mobile phone while driving.
That’s 60 per cent of people on our roads who are distracted enough by their phones that they could cause an accident. That’s 60 per cent of car, truck, bus, taxi drivers whose careless action puts them at risk of killing someone.
What is so important in a text message or a social media post that couldn’t wait until you either reach your destination or pull over to the side of the road before you look at your mobile phone?