Police extend blitz on seatbelts, mobile phones

The shocking results of a crackdown on South Australian drivers behaving badly have prompted police to extend a safety blitz.

Authorities are staggered by the number of motorists using mobile phones in the city, and refusing to wear seatbelts in the country.

It has driven police to despair during their month-long Operation Distraction.

“I am always shocked, it is a constant source of surprise to me, in particular in relation to seatbelts, that people still actively decide to not do it - it’s such a simple act,” Bob Fauser from SA Police said.

In Adelaide’s CBD and eastern suburbs, officers nabbed 437 drivers for using mobile phones.

They caught 154 in the Sturt police area, and 109 in and around Holden Hill.

Country road users are not getting the message when it comes to seatbelts.

A total of 140 were caught in the state’s west, 105 on the Yorke Peninsula and the Mid-North, plus 80 others in the Far North.

“Using a seatbelt doubles a person’s chance of surviving a serious crash,” Sharon Hanlon from the Motor Accident Commission said.

More than 50 billboards in country areas will cover this disturbing statistic.

More than a third of the people dying on South Australian roads weren’t wearing a seatbelt - including five in the past two months.

“Those five people would be alive today and their friends and family would not be experiencing this trauma,” Mr Fauser said.

Police have now extended the road safety blitz until the end of this month.