'I thought she was having a heart attack': bikie caught motorist on iPad in traffic
A motorcyclist trained in first aid was about to help a motorist he thought suffered a heart attack behind the wheel, but when he got close he saw her slumped, scrolling though her iPad.
First aider Danny Thompson spotted a Seat driver with her head slumped on her chest while stopped on a London highway during a bumper-to-bumper morning commute and captured it on helmet cam.
The 61-year-old biker told The UK Sun he slowed his motorcycle down thinking the woman needed medical attention - but found her scrolling through the screen of her iPad between her legs.
"The car had stopped and the driver was oblivious to the fact that the traffic ahead had started moving.
"I saw her head slumped in her chest and I thought she was having a heart attack at first.”
He said he thought the woman was unconscious when he spotted her chin tucked in the middle of her chest.
"I had been filtering past the slow-moving traffic but when I pulled up alongside I could see she was using the screen of what looked like an iPad. I couldn't believe it!
"The traffic was stop-start but it's an urban motorway in the middle of London. What she was doing was definitely dangerous."
Mr Thompson said it appeared as if the woman had been using the device for a while, and it was “worrying” that the practice was not unusual.
"Every day you see people on their phones and that's the reason I bought the helmet camera 18 months ago.
"People's driving seems to be getting more reckless with all the mobile technology available."
Bernard Carlon from the Centre for Road Safety said a driver was 20 times more likely to crash if they were texting while driving.
"Travelling at 60kph, you can travel 33 metres in two seconds blind if you're looking at your phone," he told the ABC.
"At 100 kilometres per hour if you have your eyes off the road, you travel the length of an Olympic swimming pool."
In Victoria, the penalty for using a handheld mobile phone or electronic device while driving is $455 and four demerit points.
In New South Wales the fine is $319 and four demerit points, which became six demerit points over the last Christmas to new year’s holiday period.
In other states, motorists generally faced fines exceeding $200 and three demerit points for illegally using phones and electronic devices while driving.
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