HIDE PHONE IN THE BOOT
AUTHORITIES campaigned for years about the Fatal Four in the bid to cut the road toll.
In recent times another element was added to the list – inattentive driving.
What is now called the Fatal Five includes fatal distraction, with the chief offender being the mobile phone.
Campaigners say current attitudes to phones and other devices that allow drivers to text or message – even handsfree – are similar to what public views on drink driving were 30 years ago. Back then, driving while drunk was known to be wrong but not seen as being as deadly or as socially unacceptable as it now is. Legislation and years of education have convinced the public that drunken and drugged drivers are potential killers.
Police always investigate whether fatal crash drivers were distracted. Without suggesting that was a factor in the M1 fatality this week, police have confirmed they are considering that line of inquiry.
Road toll figures have fallen since the start of this century, but Australian Automobile Association research shows more than 100 Australians still die on the roads each month. Inattentive driving – the use of phones – is up there with drink driving.
RACQ research confirms attitudes do not help. A survey it conducted found almost 75 per cent of drivers who flout the law by using a phone to text or other purposes while driving believe they will get away with it. Too many drivers think they are infallible, or are simply incapable of keeping their eyes off the screen. That obsession is more important to them than the lives of people in the cars around them.
The Bulletin is aware of two examples of dangerous inattention on the M1 on Tuesday afternoon. A witness reported that in the first instance, traffic held up in a long line at one of the exits was delayed further by an inattentive truck driver halfway up the ramp who failed to move until he suddenly realised the line of cars in front was long gone. In the second instance in the stop-start heavy traffic south of Helensvale where drivers had to concentrate to get past a bank-up of vehicles trying to take the Smith St exit, a motorist was wandering over the road and falling well behind the cars in front. A witness said that as he slipped past, he saw the driver with her head down, staring at her lap.
Drivers who can’t resist the phone habit are like addicts. As with heavy drug users, there is no soft option in dealing with their illness – or dangerous self indulgence.
They have to be fined into submission and if that fails, they lose their licence. And if that still fails, there is no alternative but jail. It’s very tough love, but the alternative is the loss of innocent lives.
The fatal distraction is killing people and demands a response. If camera technology used to fine speeding drivers into submission is not yet sufficient for this job, the Government has to throw resources into saturating the roads with patrols.
The Bulletin previously supported a campaign to make drivers lock their phones in the car boot before hitting the road. We still believe that is the best solution suggested to date and support it, but urge the Government to beef up the laws and police numbers so that drivers are afraid to have a phone anywhere near them in the car.