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The Government is taking a tough stand on telephone-happy motorists.
Source: Supplied
MOBILE phone-obsessed motorists have racked up more than $44 million
in fines and 515,000 demerit points in the past three financial years.
Police busted 59,258 drivers in 2012-13 - almost 4000 more than the previous years, new figures show.And the Herald Sun can reveal tough new penalties will start next month as the Government takes a tough stand on telephone-happy motorists.
Police issued an average of 162 tickets a day in 2012-13, netting $16.7 million. The 2011-12 financial year saw 151 tickets a day issued and another $13.5 million poured into state coffers. About 157 fines a day, worth $13.8 million, were issued in 2010-11.
Penalties will increase from $289 and three demerit points to fines of $433 and four demerit points on November 25, while a ban on using hands-free mobiles while be extended to about 200,000 green P-platers.
Assistant Commissioner for Road Policing Robert Hill welcomed the tougher penalties, saying mobiles were the biggest cause of driver distraction and officers would ramp up their enforcement leading into Christmas and the new year.
"The emerging issue is the accessing of social media like Facebook and Twitter on their phones while they're driving ... (and) less of the traditional mobile phone to the ear,'' Mr Hill said.
"They are compounding the distraction more so by having their eyes off the road.
"Taking that call, sending that text, it's just not worth it. It just is not worth losing your life, or someone else's.''
TAC senior manager road safety Sam Cockfield said research showed taking your eyes off the road for more than two seconds doubled a person's crash rate.
Roads Minister Terry Mulder said the Government was making the penalties tougher because the message clearly wasn't getting through.
"We want to see using mobiles while driving become as unacceptable as drink-driving now is,'' Mr Mulder said.
"We want parents to talk to young drivers about not starting the habit, and we want people who do it now to stop.''
He said P-platers, who only have five demerit points, risked losing their licence if caught using a phone due to the new four demerit-point penalty.
