13 July 2016

No excuse for distracted driving

| Michael Reid
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Police wrap

ACT police will target driver distraction in June as part of its ongoing road safety campaign with partner agencies.

Police say driver distraction is any action that takes a driver’s attention away from the road and on to other elements of their environment. This could include using a mobile phone, driving with headphones in, tuning your radio, managing children or pets on board or applying make-up.

Station Sergeant Susan Ball, the officer in charge of traffic operations, stressed that even a short glace away from the road could have tragic consequences.

“If you think that looking down for a few seconds to check a text message causes no harm, I can assure you that the families who have lost loved ones because of a distracted driver feel very differently,” she said.

“If a driver travelling in an 80kmh zone takes their eyes off the road for three seconds then they’ll travel over 60 metres effectively blindfolded before their eyes return to the road.

“There is absolutely no excuse to look at your phone while driving, either have a passenger in the car check the phone for you or simply pull over. No text message is worth somebody’s life.”

Drivers who use a hand-held phone while driving will receive a traffic infringement notice, including a fine of $386 and the loss of three demerit points.

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wildturkeycanoe said :

aussielyn said :

justin heywood said :

How about this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N1iw5Vdim8

Yeah – great clip. There should be much more of this by the police directed at mobile phone users.

Great idea.

Wonder what it all costs this constant policing of motorists and the innumerable accidents and damage they make?

At $367 a ticket, I reckon you could turn a profit.

wildturkeycanoe said :

Wonder what it all costs this constant policing of motorists and the innumerable accidents and damage they make?

Who cares about your pathological hatred of cars, roads, carparks.

As the parent of a disabled child who just has to use a car for transport, what I want to see from ACT Policing is a “targeting” of those ignorant ar***hole drivers who park in disabled parking spaces without a disabled parking voucher. And not just “targeting” of that for a month. Permanently – every time a police car/bike passes a shopping centre, drift past and look at who is parking in the disabled spaces. And what about parking inspectors blitzing this ? Its so so frustrating for those with a legal entitlement/voucher to use those spaces allocated for their use.

aussielyn said :

justin heywood said :

How about this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N1iw5Vdim8

Yeah – great clip. There should be much more of this by the police directed at mobile phone users.

Great idea.

Wonder what it all costs this constant policing of motorists and the innumerable accidents and damage they make?

justin heywood said :

How about this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N1iw5Vdim8

Yeah – great clip. There should be much more of this by the police directed at mobile phone users. Great idea.

JC said :

Always curious as to how they target “drowsy” drivers. Are they the ones driving around in their piggy jim-jams ?

Zigzagging down the road is a hint. I followed a truck doing this recently and I was relieved when it pulled over at the next truck stop. Yes, sleep needed, I thought. I had hung back, but I was amazed how many people pulled around me and then overtook the truck. One wrong swerve from the truck would have taken the car out. Either some people didn’t mind risking their lives overtaking an unpredictable truck (semi I think from memory), or there are some very unobservant drivers out there who had no idea the driver was likely struggling not to nod off.

Always curious as to how they target “drowsy” drivers. Are they the ones driving around in their piggy jim-jams ?

Yet the constant hunt for mobile speed camera vans isn’t a driver distraction? Especially the one that was parked directly beneath the flashing orange sign on William Hovell Drive last week..

These police “targeting xxxxx” campaigns are interesting.

I would have thought that police should be targeting driver distractions, like using mobile phones, loud music, etc, as standard road policing practice – that it shouldn’t need specific targeting or be for a specific period of time.

Or is it just an opportunity for promotion/highlighting of specific road rule …….?

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