New Laws For
Distracted Drivers
Australia Introduces New Laws
I have posted several articles over
the past few years on the very
serious issue of people texting
and generally being distracted by
their mobile devices while driving.
One post covered the terrible
case where in February this year,
a 22-year-old man, who allegedly
took his eyes off the road for up
to 20 seconds to use his phone,
seriously injured two policemen
set ting up a random breath
test. That 20 seconds of mobile
phone use in a car travelling at
60km/h was equivalent to driving
blind for 330 meters, Parliament
was told. As a result, one of the
police officers had part of his leg
amputated.
Prof. Allan Manning is one of Australia’s
most academically qualified insurance
pr of e s s ional s having le c t ur e d at
a number of ter tiar y institutions,
de live r ing ove r 1,250 p ap e r s o n
insurance and risk management topics.
With over 45 years in the industry, Prof.
Manning now acts as a client advocate
on claims, an expert witness, conducts
policy program reviews and drafts
insurance wordings.
H e i s c ur r e nt ly p r e s i de nt of t h e
Inte r national Ins tit ute of Claims
Preparers and has been rated in the top
20 most influential people in Australian
insurance for the past 6 years. He was
awarded the Life Time Achievement
Award at the 2012 Insurance Industry
Awards and honorary life membership
of the Australian and New Zealand
Institute of Insurance and Finance.
Even on Saturday as I drove out
of my own street onto a round
about, I was nearly involved in
a collision with a driver who was
clearly not watching the road.
Thankfully my wife and I could
see the driver was not watching
the road and we avoided the
certain collision.
I therefore welcome the new
measures taken by the New
South Wales government to curb
this very real problem. That is,
people simply do not realise
their addiction to social media,
text messaging and emailing is
putting people’s lives, including
their own, at risk. This is despite
more than 40,000 people being
fined by NSW Police for illegal
mobile phone use in the 2016-17
financial year.
Important information provided by
Capricorn Risk Services
- by Prof. Allan Manning
In trials by One Task, a Sydney
technology company, of speed
cameras to spot illegal use the
cameras detected more than
400 Sydney-siders using phones
illegally in a 12-hour period.
NSW will be the first place in the
world to introduce speed-camera-
style technology to detect and
crack down on illegal mobile
phone use by motorists and while
it will no doubt have a revenue
benefit to the government, I
do believe the primary reason
for the new laws is to reduce
the numbers of people killed or
seriously injured on the road.
The new rules have been passed
by NSW Parliament and they also
extend to mobile drug testing
which will now include cocaine
and tougher penalties for drivers
under the influence of drugs. If
successful, these laws are likely
to be applied in other Australian
states as well as New Zealand.
While motor vehicle policies
have an exclusion for drivers
being under the influence of
alcohol or drugs, only a few have
introduced exclusions for texting
while driving.
While I strongly support such an
exclusion, I think it should be in
line with the under the influence
exclusion and still protect the
owner of the vehicle but make the
driver ultimately responsible for
their dangerous actions.
RISK SERVICES
CAPRICORN IGNITION JUNE 2018 17