Having an untouched phone on your lap while driving, or wearing a seatbelt underneath your shoulder have long been crimes in Australia.
But the recent enforcement of them, using mobile and seatbelt detection cameras and AI technology, has uncovered a major issue with how those road rule specifics are understood by the nation’s motorists.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Mobile phone road rule confusion catching out drivers.
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A lawyer from South Australia and an employee of a rental car company in NSW, both who come in contact with a high volume of fines from various drivers, have said that they are seeing an overwhelming number of incidents involving oblivious drivers.
But confusion is not just coming from motorists — images attached to fines, in which no crime is clearly visible, are leaving innocent drivers to engage in expensive court dispute the images, or risk losing their licences, an outcome which could also cost them their jobs.
Motorists are calling on police to be certain of breaches before sending the fines out, or create easier avenues to dispute inaccuracies.
Morphett Vale man, Ben Digance, was driving home from work when he was snapped by a mobile detection camera on December 9.
In the image attached to the fine sent to him by SA Police, Digance’s fingers can be seen resting together, similar to how one might hold a phone — but there is no phone visible in the image.
“One hand is on the wheel, the other’s on the leg. There’s no visible phone at all … either on me, or in-hand,” Digance told 7NEWS.
Digance habitually keeps his work phone inside the centre console of his car while driving, and said: “I am confident that I was not using the phone.”
But disputing what he is “certain” is an inaccuracy, is no simple task.
“When I asked to have the photo reviewed, they’ve still come back with, no, I was using a phone,” he told 7NEWS.
“Even the person you speak to on the phone sits there and says there’s nothing you can do. The reviewers don’t speak on the phone, they will only deal with emails.
Adding fuel to the fire, Digance said he only recently spent about $1000 on a new stereo system equipped with speech-to-text, and hands-free call capabilities.
He did this specifically to avoid breaking the law, following the widespread installation of mobile phone detection cameras across his state, he said.
He said he finds it “very frustrating” that even this costly purchase could not help him evade the time-consuming penalty process.
Digance is now seeking legal advice, and on top of legal fees will have to take time off of work to attend court to dispute the $556 fine.
“It’s a lot of money, and I could understand if it was feasible, but when there is no phone visible, how can you fine someone?
“There needs to be more scrutiny, and checking to be more certain … (police need) to be more thorough on the checking of the photos and the fines.”
Road rules mistunderstood
At SA law firm Stanley Hill Elkins, barrister, solicitor and partner Karen Stanley told 7NEWS she has had up to 30 people contact her recently about such matters.
“Most of the people that call me are the people with multiple fines, who are about to lose their licence,” she said.
“The only penalty for using your mobile phone (while driving) is the fine and demerit points — but it doesn’t take many of them to get to the stage where there is a demerit point disqualification.”
A majority of the calls she receives about the matter also involve a situation where the driver’s phone can be clearly seen on their lap, with some clients being clocked by cameras up to 11 times before they realise they were actually breaking a law, she said.
“That is actually an offence, and it is under the definitions in the rules … It’s actually been a part of the law for the last 10 years, but is only now becoming enforced because there are photos being taken of people in their cars.”
“This is a real problem in how well the public understands that use of a mobile phone includes having it rest on your lap.”
False fines
But Stanley also has clients whose situations lay on either side of that area of confusion.
“Some (fines) I’ll look at, and that person is very clearly on their phone. That person, I recommend to just pay the fine, because if they pay the fine they are going to avoid a conviction,” she said.
“But then I have had other people who tell me they weren’t on their phone.
“One example is of a gentleman who … was wearing a hi-vis shirt with a very visible fluorescent strip down the front, near where the seatbelt crosses over him.
“Someone like him would clearly have a case.”
‘More and more of these’
Even in NSW, where detection cameras have been in operation for longer than in SA, one employee of a rental car company has been inundated with fines copped by those renting the company’s vehicles.
“I’ve been seeing more and more of these pop up the last few months,” the employee shared on Reddit on Wednesday.
He shared a customer’s expiation notice for $410 and six demerit points for not wearing a seatbelt over their shoulder while travelling eats on the M4 at Greystanes between Prospect Hwy and Cumberland Hwy on December 22.
“This poor fellow got wacked with double demerits,” the Reddit user wrote.
