August 1, 2004
Police call for text messaging ban in cars
The Victoria Police (Australia) warns of an alarming rise in road fatalities linked to mobile phones and something not often written about, how young people are text messaging while at the wheel. This article in The Age gives out example after example of such behaviour with often fatal consequences. Taking your eyes of the road to read an SMS in not only dangerous but obviously extremely stupid. I've done it. Have you?
-- An accident near Warrnambool last weekend that killed two girls lat weekend when the car they were passengers in ran off the road. Police believe that in the moments before the accident as the vehicle came around a bend, a back-seat passenger passed a mobile phone to the driver - so he could read a text message.
-- In December 2001, cyclist Anthony Marsh was killed by a motorist sending a text message.
-- Mr Keogh said a woman driver also died last year when she was distracted by her mobile phone and entered an intersection when it was not her right of way.
-- On July 2, an 18-year-old from Geraldton, in Western Australia, was jailed for 12 months after he let a friend sitting in the front passenger seat steer the car he was driving so he could read a text message. The car ran into a tree - the friend was killed.
-- In a police crackdown on the use of mobile phones by motorists in the Diamond Creek area during June, 54 drivers were caught using mobile phones - including a 17-year-old learner driver who was caught sending a text message while she was driving.
Her mother was sitting beside her in the passenger seat.
According to Mr Keogh, motorists are not getting the message about the dangers of using mobiles while driving.
Research by Telstra in June showed that more than half of Australian motorists under the age of 30 may be reading text messages while at the wheel.
The research also showed that 58 per cent of motorists surveyed aged 17 to 29 admitted to looking down at their mobile phones to read text messages.. be a good start to reviewing the legislation on the use of mobile phones.
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