The majority of Australian motorists believe it should be legal to use your mobile phone while driving, with an increasing number saying they were confident to drive while using their phones.
A new survey from Brisbane-based insurer Budget Direct found 22 percent of Aussie drivers surveyed would back themselves to safely use their phone while driving, a number which has increased from 12 percent in 2020.
Budget Direct Chief Growth Officer Jonathan Kerr said that five-year trend painted a worrying picture for road safety authorities, with confidence growing at a steady rate.
Mr Kerr said almost half the survey respondents (45 percent) admitted using their phone while driving in the past two weeks.
“Our survey revealed nearly 54 percent of respondents felt it should be legal,” he said.
Mr Kerr said the main way driver used their phone while driving was to use a navigation app (23 percent), followed by checking the phone while stopped at traffic lights (8 percent).
He said over six per cent of people who answered the survey changed songs on a playlist and another 3 percent read or replied to a text message.
“Nearly forty-four percent of respondents said they used the phone because they felt safe and capable to do so.
“Exactly seventeen percent admitted it was a habit, and 15 percent claimed it was an emergency.”
Mr Kerr said modern phones served so many purposes.
“They’re your phone, your email, your internet, your social media, your diary, even your driver’s licence and wallet.
“That poses some unexpected grey areas. For example, in some states it may be illegal to use your phone to pay at the drive-through,” he said.
Mr Kerr said Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and recently South Australia had changed the rules to enable tap and go payments in drive-throughs, while elsewhere, drivers needed to ensure they put their car in park before picking up their phone.
He said despite the increasing confidence in using a phone while driving, 30 percent of drivers surveyed felt texting while driving was most likely to result in a road fatality, putting it as more dangerous than speeding (18 percent) and not wearing a seatbelt (5 percent).
“Only drink driving (40 percent) was considered more likely to result in fatality.”
