Aussie driver fined $30,000 for breaking road rule 31 times
Huge fines have been handed out after the first year of Queensland's mobile phone detection cameras.
It seems the lesson hasn’t been driven home for one Queensland motorist who reportedly racked up more than $30,000 in fines for using a mobile phone behind the wheel.
The driver was caught out using a phone while driving a total of 31 times between November 2021 and October 2022, according to new statistics from the Department of Transport and Main Roads.
Under Queensland laws, you can now be fined $1,078 and have four demerits recorded against your name for using a phone while driving. Double demerit points apply for second or subsequent mobile phone offences committed within a year of an earlier office. Two offences within a year usually amounts to a loss of licence.
900 workers caught out behind the company wheel
The new data reportedly reveals 10,893 people were filmed using a phone on more than one occasion in the 12-month period, which was the first year the state government rolled out its high-tech offence detection cameras. Among them, 620 drivers received fines four times and 626 were busted five times or more.
Meanwhile almost 900 companies or organisations were hit with penalties after their drivers were captured multiple times breaking the mobile rules, while one business alone copped 38 fines.
But the Department of Transport and Main Roads warned the consequences of using a phone could be a lot worse than a fine.
“Using a mobile phone while driving is as dangerous as driving with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.07 to 0.10,” a transport spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia. "Between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022, we lost 27 people due to distracted driver or riders, almost 10 per cent of all fatalities."
Drivers failing to buckle up for safety
It wasn’t just phone usage behind the wheel that caught out Queensland drivers last year.
More than 4,200 motorists were caught red handed for failing to buckle up including 258 who were nabbed five times or more.
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"In 2022, we lost 299 people in road crashes [while] almost one-third of motorists killed (excluding pedestrians, bike riders and motorcyclists) were not wearing a seatbelt," the spokesperson for the Department of Transport and Main Roads added. “Wearing a seatbelt correctly fastened and adjusted reduces the risk of serious injury in a crash by 50 per cent and death by 45 per cent.”
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