Mobile phone traffic cameras will create legal headache

The numbers are in – a LOT of Aussies are still using their mobile phones while driving.

Not only is mobile phone use while driving illegal - and punishable by fines and demerit points - a NSW government report on the issue suggests it presents "a four-fold increase in the risk of a crash".

The NSW government and several other states including Queensland and Victoria are seeking to permanently install mobile phone detection cameras, or MPDCs, to reduce the road toll.

The report summarises the NSW government's three-month trial of two fixed mobile phone detection cameras (MPDC) in metropolitan Sydney "and various other relocatable locations".

In total, more than 8.5 million vehicles were photographed and of these, more than 100,000 drivers were found to have been using their phone illegally.

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By comparison, NSW Police issued roughly 37,500 infringement notices for illegal mobile phone use while driving for the entire 12-months of 2018.

Bernard Carlon, executive director at Transport for NSW's Centre for Road Safety, said the results confirmed the need for higher levels of policing over an issue "happening right across the whole of the network".

However, the report points out that if/when the bill to permanently install MPDCs in NSW is passed into law, it could create court chaos as drivers challenged their fines.

If the MPDCs get the green light, they would photograph around 135 million vehicles per year and 1.8 per cent of these – almost 2.5 million motorists – would likely be issued fines.

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Of those drivers issued with infringement notices, about 3 per cent would contest them, according to the report data, which would mean almost 73,000 additional court hearings.

In turn, "this program runs the risk of overwhelming the Local Court regardless of whether or not a reverse onus is in place", reads the report.

Michal Mantaj of the Law Society of New South Wales observed there would almost certainly be a spike in disputes going to court and that drivers who require their driver's licence to do their job would be among those most likely to go to court.

"I would not be surprised if there were several thousand additional hearings throughout the State if this bill becomes law," said Mantaj.

Motorists who are busted using a mobile phone while driving in NSW will be fined $344 and five demerit points, rising to $457 if they're in a school zone.

In other states the fines are higher, with Queenslanders looking at a $400 infringement notice, $484 for mobile phone use while driving in Victoria.

What actually constitutes 'mobile phone use while driving' varies slightly from state to state but is generally considered to have a phone touching any part of your person whether moving or stationary. Queensland drivers cannot even use speaker phone mode - only a wireless headset or hands-free earbuds are allowed.

Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria are currently investigating the MPDC technology with intent to implement similar policing strategies. The phone detection cameras work day and night in all weather conditions and work from multiple angles and are even capable of spying motorists who have phones on their laps who may be texting.

At this stage the NSW government says it has no plans to place signage around the mobile phone detection cameras to alert motorists.

Andrew Constance, the NSW Minister for Transport and Roads, said: "I also want to be clear about the advisory signage. The Government wants everybody who backs a car out of their driveway into the road network to know that they could be caught anywhere at any time. A significant number of signs will advise motorists around New South Wales that they can be detected by these cameras, but that could occur anywhere at any time."