Civil Disobedience !

Stand beside any road carrying a high volume of traffic and it is not hard to spot drivers illegally using their mobile phones.  This is despite opinion polls giving a seventy-four percent approval for the use of cameras to detect this law breach.   Often it is the very people who support the law who continue to break the law.

The mobile phone is a truly insidious device.  Once we have one in our hands the urge to use it becomes unstoppable. We often encounter people driving at high speed with their attention directed at their phone as they text a message - and common sense clearly indicates the danger this poses.

We are now in the testing stage of advanced camera technology capable of detecting, photographing and identifying drivers at the wheel and using mobile phones.  A test at one spot with a high volume traffic flow detected eleven thousand law breakers in just the one day.  No fines are being issued in this test stage, but the question arises as to whether this form of civil disobedience can be brought under control by the use of law enforcement techniques.

Given the prevalence of illegal phone use, the figures speak for themselves. In the five years to 2017 there were 184 crashes in New South Wales that can be attributed to mobile phone use at the wheel.  These resulted in seven deaths and one hundred and five serious injuries.  That could hardly be termed catastrophic.

At present it is perfectly legal for a fully licensed driver to speak or receive a voice message on a mobile phone while driving if that phone is installed in a legal holder.  It becomes illegal if the phone is held in a persons hand.  It seems that the urge to receive and send messages simply overwhelms the danger factor and this must be the most disobeyed law in the land.  At present, it is out of control and the only answer seems camera use to inflict fines and demerit points.  That will become a government revenue raiser without a drop in resulting car crashes if this disobedience continues.

There is another option that the politicians could use if they thought the crash danger required it - and they were prepared to face the wrath of many ordinary citizens.  The modern car is fitted with electrical suppression of static to allow technology like mobile phones to operate when the engine is running.  Mandated removal would make all phone use impossible in a moving car.

Obviously, this would need to be implemented at the Federal level rather than state level to avoid confusion at state borders and it would also reduce the cars passengers to phone silence - along with the driver.   If there was an urgent need to make a phone call it would require the car to pull over, stop and switch off the engine.   Whether that is the price to pay for the safety issue it would confer is a moot point !

It seems more likely that the main outcome of accidents from mobile phone use is probably low speed rear-enders in commuter traffic while drivers are distracted using their phones.  Often high speed crashes also have the contributing factor of drug or alcohol use and consequently the vehicle is in the hands of a person who is out of normal control.

Mobile phone use while driving does enhance the crash risk, but given how widespread it is that risk seems to be over stated.  The only control measure open to the government seems to be the " fear factor ".   At present, the fear of a savage fine and loss of demerit points is not curbing phone use.
Perhaps a good reason to carefully re-examine the whole strategy of the law that applies to mobile phones.