Australian motorists warned about new fines for a very common driving practice

Motorists who use their phone while driving are set to be targeted by new high-tech safety cameras in one Australian state. 

The Victorian government will this week propose legislation to allow police to use cameras which can detect when a driver is using their mobile phone illegally.

The cost of developing and implementing the cameras is expected to reach $33.7million by the time they are rolled out on Victorian roads in 2023.

NSW rolled out the cameras in 2020 and collected more than $73million in fines for mobile phone use in their first year of operation.

Under Victoria’s road laws, motorists caught using their phone behind the wheel face a $545 fine and four demerit points. 

‘Obviously anything that is going to support road safety we are very keen on,’ Chief Police Commissioner Shane Patton told The Herald Sun.

The Daniel Andrews government is also trying to introduce a new law which will insure cyclists who get hit by car doors under the Transport Accident Scheme. 

Cameras will also be able to detect people not wearing seatbelts. 

The trial last year tracked 679,438 drivers and found one in 42 of them were using their phone behind the wheel illegally. 

However the state government said at the time it expected to catch more motorists than that as the trial was carried out during stage four coronavirus restrictions.

‘It’s anticipated the rate of offending could be higher when roads are busier and movement isn’t restricted,’ a government spokesman said. 

The highest rate of illegal mobile phone use was found at Craigieburn Road East in Wollert in Melbourne’s far northern suburbs.

The move comes after Victoria Police introduced new technology to track down unauthorised motorists.

Victorian motorists have been warned unauthorised drivers will be caught as police rollout new technology across their highway patrol vehicles 

As of January, all of Victoria’s highway patrol vehicles were fitted with automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology.

The software allows police to detect drivers who are suspended, disqualified or unlicensed as well as unregistered and stolen vehicles and fraudulent number plates.   

The ANPR system enables registration information to be matched against a database of vehicles of interest so they can be identified, and also includes in-car-video to record roadside intercepts, which can be used as evidence in court. 

The technology is used by police in all Australian states and territories, although the number of vehicles with the cameras vary in each jurisdiction.