Victoria cracks down on mobile phone use
August 28, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Driving and using a mobile phone in Victoria is about to get a whole lot stricter with increased fines and demerit points to be introduced under a new proposal from the State Government.
The crack down will also include drivers using a phone that is not fitted to a cradle and will even extend to portable navigation devices. This move will become law from November 1.
Roads Minister Tim Pallas said the new laws were all about common sense and saving lives, based on one simple principle – hands on the wheel, eyes on the road.
“But the message doesn’t seem to get through to everybody,” said Mr Pallas. “Talking on a hand-held mobile phone while driving is reckless and increases the risk of a crash fourfold.”
Drivers breaking the law face a $234 fine and three demerit points.
P-platers will get an even stricter deal with the new rules saying they cannot use a mobile phone at all whilst driving, even if they’re in a hands-free set.
Print it: 
Please throw the phonebook (pun intended) at the morons who text while driving, they’re even more dangerous than ppl who talk on a mobile without a HF kit.
I’m writing my first bestselling novel at the moment, and I find it most productive if I have my EE-PC on my lap while driving. It was hard at first, watching the speedo all the time, to keep up my typing speed.
Now it’s gonna have to be a blockbuster to pay all the fines, but I haven’t had any for speeding, as I watch the speedo 90% of the time…….
The novel is about Brumby’s achievements in the field of road safety and making sure Melbourne has water, so unfortunately it’s very thin….Retail price will be $632 – it has to be worth the same as registering a small car for a year, doesn’t it?
But I agree, texting makes my blood boil when I see a teenager doing it while driving, and I see it plenty.
Not harsh enough. Double the fine and the points and smash the phone in front of the fools.
Lets hope they actually enforce it with the same zeal they go after speeders – in my mind this is far more dangerous. I reckon a cop on any city street could pull someone over every minute for this, but Ive never seen it happen, whereas the speed police are rife.
And lets hope we get the same law in NSW…
all for more toughness against phones while driving, but i wonder how they can enforce this with what looks like huge grey areas, lets hope the vic police can make it abundantly clear what is law and what isnt, however i doubt it, most people dont understand half the road rules out there and you dont even get tested on it.
so what happens when im using my bluetooth enabled phone through my HF set, do i now need to put that up on the dash in a cradle, cause that makes no sense whatsoever.
I can not see how driving and talking on a mobile phone is any different to changing radio stations at the same time you are talking to a passenger. I would love to take one of their tests that apparently prove it is more dangerous than drink driving.
If it is not illegal to sell a manual car to a one arm man than it should not be illegal to talk on a phone.
I still find it hard to believe that it is fine for people to smoke while driving.
I know that you dont needs as much concentration to suck on something than having a conversation but its the same principle
Luke – in the UK it’s not and you can get pulled over under the general “not driving with due care and attention” law. People have been pulled over for fiddling with the stereo, smoking – anything that means taking your hands off the wheel and not concentrating on the road.
Not sure if there’s the same rules here in Oz though…
are you effing serious! (even though i don’t live there) yesterday i was racing someone whilst on my phone and i still won!
i’m a green p plater
I lived in Victoria for a couple of years and totally loved Melbourne, BUT can’t stand the blatant revenue attack on motorists by all Victorian governments so i stay away and spend my tourist dollars else where
So are Police officers,Ambulance,Fire Fighters exempt ?
laurie
If the new laws, applicable from early Novemeber, are about common sense then why do they ban overtaking over single white line – that was one of the best aspects of the Victorian road law.
After these laws get enacted you will
A)be stuck forever behind a slow moving vehicle
B)be forced to break the law and overtake.
Its nonsense – so basically driving to Mt Hotham, and the road is all marked as a single white continuous line, you WILL NOT be allowed to overtake at all.
This is crazy law.
And about the mobile phones and GPS – damn, ban them outright. Why is GPS allowed to be used, people staring at that screen instead of watching ahead for other vehicles, a kid or a granma crossing the road. Crazy.
There goes Freedom Of Speech.
I’m most impressed with people who can talk on the mobile use laptop and drink a beer whilst having a smoke and a joint and race someone overtaking on the footpath now that’s skill!. I also think the speed limit should be raised to say 200 mph on free way? ;)
Whenever this government sees an opportunity to wrench money out of people, it seizes it. I’ve no objection to offenders being hit with de-merit points – increase them if it’ll work. But heavy fines not only penalise the poor but they simply do not work as a deterrent. A more sensible measure is to require offenders to attend driver education classes for a period of time. In that way, the inconvenience of attendance is non-discriminatory and will probably have more effect. But any idea like that would cut right across the governemnt’s principle aim of ripping money from whatever source it can conjure up.
Australia is just screwed when it comes to these(road rules,blablabla)
VERY SAD
People texting and “operating the phone” i.e making a call and looking at the phone screen in general is the main distraction.
don’t knock the gps, its better than street directory on steering wheel in the old days
maybe its a stimulus package, many cars have a bluetooth from ebay these days and we want people to buy some cradles lol
welcome all you vic,s we in nsw have been getting this bullsh-t for years what i would like to say how many lives have been saved with all this sh-t people are going to die on the roads and that is that when is all this going to stop oh no dont go outside kiddys you may get hurt stay inside in your cotten wool world who are the pollys in this country trying to kid
Truckies and taxi drivers use CB radios ~
Maybe they will make it compulsory to use a “handsfree” CB Radio soon too….Someone who is first on the market with such an invention will make lots of money!
The police need an unmarked car with video cameras on it.
They will easily nab people if my experience of daily driving is anything to go on.
Carlover, they already have it. It’s called VOX which is voice activated transmission.
So if you put your phone on speaker and put it on the passenger seat next to you, that’s not ok? Pffft
Watch this UK TV ad.
You will change your mind.
Texting and driving – the ad 2 die4
http://www.dailytelegraph.com......5766232934
So if I got a Bluetooth headset, and my phone is in the center console, not on a cradle, thats it i’ve had it.
And With “based on one simple principle – hands on the wheel, eyes on the road.”
Why are people aloud to smoke while driving, talk to passengers & make hand motions, 1 arm out the window, Change radio station/CD track while driving, Drive with 1 hand on the gear stick.
Are they gonna make some laws about these kind of things too??
Cheese and slice.
A Ban I also Dangerous.
First a little background, Im a trucker, and yes I use my phone when Im driving, for me it is not a problem, my focus is always first on the road, sometimes I have to ask people to repeat what they where saying to me, as I say to them sorry but I was not paying attention to them bec. Im driving.
And just to draw a parallel. My brother is an airline pilot and sometimes I rented a plane for him to fly me, and I for one would not feel safe if he was banned from using the VHF in the plane.
I understand the problem… when I was a young boy I mounted a cb radio in a van, and it was really not very safe, bec back then I looked at the cb instead of the road, but we all have to learn.
so back to the point of a dangerous ban.
Here in the Faroe islands there is also a ban on using non handfree sets while driving. what happens then? Well lot of drivers just stop their car on the road to answer the phone (who cares about a parking ticket?) this is more dangerous than if they just followed the flow of trafic, instead of hidding behind the next curve stopped in the middle of the road!
Ok was using a bit of time thinking about txt’ing on the phone, yes I do it at times while driving the truck, but let me say…I hate to see other drivers/truckers do it, when driving in town I cut it down to send a yes/no on the cell, when out of town.. thats another story. one thing is that drivers who only use the car to and from work really should think about how unsafe they are making their driving using their time to do anything other than controlling the vehicle.
Im also a ham operator and sending sms can be just as much a non brainer as sending morse code, you would not look at a screen to chek your dash and dots, the same goes for sms, but the problem is that we are all using the road both pros and….
… of course I’m typing this on my blackberry as I’m speeding through town, through amber – stuff it red lights (hey the other side was green)… hang on just got to enter my destination into the GPS… shivers, dropped the lighter….. oh that’s a great burger but have to take the pickle out, …. oh and bless these cup holders….. better have another drink…. now where was I….. getting bored what else can I do…… whilst driving….