Distractions & Mobile Phones

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Driver distraction contributes significantly to serious road crashes. Driving is a complex task. To anticipate and avoid hazards on the road, drivers need to concentrate and give it their full attention.

Getting distracted doesn’t take much – we all experience distractions from time to time from our passengers, mobile phones, radios or CD music. Distractions need to take second place to the task of driving safely.

Easily distracted? Change your ways with these easy tips!

While some level of distraction when driving a motor vehicle is unavoidable, there are a number of simple things drivers can do to manage it:

Turn off your mobile phone when driving (even if it is a hands-free mobile phone).
Adjust all vehicle controls (including the radio/CD player) before setting off.
Turn off your MP3 player when driving.
Take a break rather than eat, drink, smoke or groom yourself while driving.
Don’t know the route? Either you or your passenger can check a map before starting the journey to know what lies ahead.
Ask passengers to be quiet if you are having difficulty concentrating while driving.
Ensure pets are properly restrained in the vehicle (e.g. using a secured carrier box or pet seat belt system).
Recognise what makes you distracted and either avoid engaging in that activity when driving, or find a safe place to pull over and do it.
Make sure the vehicle’s windscreens and mirrors are clean and unobstructed.

Link to the Distractions Game, opening in a new window

Play the Distraction Game!

Legal issues

While “distraction” is not an offence in Western Australia under the Road Traffic Act 1974 or the Road Traffic Code 2000, there are a number of offences drivers may commit if they make errors as a result of distraction. These range from not giving way to more serious offences like speeding and careless driving.

Here are two potentially distracting activities:

It is illegal to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving. Penalty is a $250 fine and 3 demerit points.
It is illegal to drive a motor vehicle which has a television receiver or visual display unit operating if any part of the image on the screen is visible to the driver from the normal driving position. Penalty is a $100 fine and 3 demerit points.

Mobile phones

While the law provides for the making and receiving of phone calls while driving, a driver’s attention is still diverted from the driving task while doing so.

The safest option is to choose to turn your mobile phone off while driving. If you need to have your phone switched on while driving it is recommended that calls not be made while driving, and that all phone calls received be limited to short, essential calls.

New laws from 1 March 2011

Changes to the laws regarding the use of mobile phones and visual display units while driving came into effect on 1 March 2011. The changes help clarify the term ‘use’, and address questions about the use of mobile phones which have other capabilities (e.g. text messages, emails, video messages, GPS, etc.). For more information on the changes to the laws, please see the frequently asked questions below.

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions - Changes to the Laws Relating to the Use of Mobile Phones and Display Units While Driving in Western Australia (5 page PDF 1.9 MB)

The Effects of Mobile Phone Use on Driving

Research has found that talking on a mobile phone is more distracting than holding an intelligent conversation with a passenger.

Collectively, a number of studies have shown that using a mobile phone while driving can:

impair a driver’s ability to maintain the correct lane position
impair a driver’s ability to maintain an appropriate and predictable speed
result in longer reaction times to detect and respond to unexpected events
result in drivers missing traffic signals
reduce the functional visual field of view which, in turn, has been shown to be associated with an increase in crash involvement
result in shorter following distances to vehicles in front
result in drivers accepting gaps in traffic streams that are not large enough
increase a driver’s mental workload, resulting in higher levels of stress and frustration
encourage drivers to look straight ahead rather than scanning around the road ahead
reduce a driver’s awareness of what is happening around them in time and space.

As a result of these impacts on driving performance, the use of a mobile phone while driving increases the risk of being involved in a crash by up to 4 times.

There is also significant evidence that the use of a hands-free mobile phone while driving is no safer than using a hand-held phone.

Mobile phone use also often involves associated tasks that may further distract a driver. These include writing down phone numbers while driving or writing down dates and notes in diaries.

Sending a text message is even more distracting than talking on a mobile phone.

Fact Sheet

Curtin-Monash Accident Research Centre has developed a Using Mobile Telephones while Driving fact sheet which describes the current situation in Western Australia and presents the latest evidence on the crash risk of using a mobile phone while driving.

Research

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published a research report on the use of mobile phones while driving, in response to concern among policy makers that this potential risk to road safety is increasing rapidly as a result of the exponential growth in the use of mobile phones more generally in society. It aims to raise awareness about the risks of distracted driving associated with mobile phone use, and to present countermeasures that are being used around the world to tackle this growing problem.

You can download the report from the WHO website.

Statistics and effects of distractions on driving

It has been estimated that distraction played a role in 32% of all road crash deaths and serious injuries in Western Australia between 2005 and 2007.

Approximately one third of all distractions appear to be outside-the-vehicle distractions.

Between 15-20% of all distractions appear to involve driver interaction with technology.

Distraction appears to be largely associated with rear-end crashes, same travel-way or same direction crashes, single vehicle crashes, and crashes occurring at night.

There is evidence that young novice drivers and older drivers (55 years and older) are particularly vulnerable to the effects of driver distraction.

For young novice drivers, this is because they have not yet automated many driving tasks and thus have less spare cognitive capacity to devote to other tasks. They are also likely to be less effective in self-regulating their performance between competing tasks.
Older drivers are more vulnerable to the effects of driver distraction because they have less attention to distribute between competing tasks, require more glances at mobile phones and other devices to read information, require more time to move their eyes between the road and displays inside the vehicle, and require more time to complete tasks.

The effects of distractions on driving

Driving a motor vehicle is a complex task. Drivers continually divide their attention between competing driving and non-driving tasks.

Drivers can sometimes be distracted by an object, event or activity to such an extent that they are no longer able to allocate sufficient attention to the driving task. When this happens driving performance is compromised, and road safety issues arise.

See the fact sheets below for more details.

A full review of the research on in-car driver distraction has been undertaken by the Monash University Accident Research Centre.

Driver Distraction: A Review of the Literature (2003) (66 page PDF 254 KB)

Further reading
The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) in the USA has reviewed and summarised distracted driving research available as of January 2011 to inform states and other organisations as they consider distracted driving countermeasures. The report can be downloaded from the GHSA website.

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