WARRNAMBOOL police are cracking down on motorists using mobile phones while behind the wheel.
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“It’s not worth it,” Warrnambool police Constable Melissa Gray said.
Anyone caught with a mobile phone in their hand will be hit with a hefty fine of $466 and four demerit points, she said.
Constable Gray said it was not acceptable to use a phone as a GPS while holding it in your hand.
“You can’t have it in your hand at all, it has to be in a commercially manufactured holder,” Constable Gray said.
She said texting while driving was extremely dangerous.
“It’s very dangerous because they’re not paying attention to the road, even if they only look down for three seconds they can travel a long way in that time and they may hit a child who runs out on the road,” Constable Gray said.
She said police were targeting driver distraction, fatigue and drink driving.
“Mobile phone use is the biggest issue when it comes to driver distraction,” Constable Gray said.
She said fatigue was also an issue and urged motorists to take regular breaks on long trips.
According to the Transport Accident Commission, driving while using a mobile phone can impair a driver’s:
- Reaction time
- Visual search patterns
- Ability to maintain speed and position on the road
- Ability to judge safe gaps in the traffic
- General awareness of other traffic.
The most common type of crashes associated with mobile phone usage are run-off-the-road crashes and and rear-end crashes.
A survey conducted by the TAC in late 2015 found more than half of Victorian drivers admitted to using their handheld device at the wheel.
In a survey of nearly 1000 Victorian drivers, 56 per cent of respondents admitted to illegally using their phones while driving in the previous month.
A TAC spokeswoman said it showed many Victorians were ignoring the deadly link between distractions and road trauma.
“Unless drivers are totally focused on the task at hand, they are not in a position to respond to something unexpected like a pedestrian stepping out onto the road or a car stopping in front of them,” she said.
“We have already seen too many instances where the second or two of inattention has resulted in death or serious injury.
“The responsibility for reducing road trauma is shared by every road user and being attentive at all times when using the road network is part of that responsibility.”
Of the regional respondents to the survey, 14 per cent said they had read a text message while actively driving in the past month and 8 per cent said they had written a text while driving.
Reading and writing text messages while stopped at the lights was more common, with 36 per cent saying they had read a text at the lights.
Eighteen per cent said they had written a text while waiting for a green light.
Drivers aged 26 to 39 were most likely to use their phones while driving, with only 28 per cent saying they never made or answered calls.