{"id":107841,"date":"2015-05-20T19:50:53","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T09:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=107841"},"modified":"2020-11-12T16:28:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T06:28:08","slug":"crackdown-on-phone-fiends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/","title":{"rendered":"Crackdown On Phone Fiends"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
There’ll be double demerit points for drivers caught texting or talking on their mobile phones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

May 20, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

Motorists repeatedly caught texting or using their mobile phone while driving will face double demerit points – but not doubled fines – under changes announced today by the State Government.<\/p>\n

The tougher penalties are among a range of recommendations arising from last month\u2019s “Safer Roads, Safer Queensland” forum at Parliament House where top level talks were held with road safety experts on ways to address an alarming spike in the 2015 Easter road toll.<\/p>\n

Police Minister Jo-Ann Miller and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said all of the recommendations were strongly supported by key stakeholders, including the Police, RACQ, CARRS-Q, Bicycle Queensland, the Motorcycle Riders Association of Queensland and the Queensland Trucking Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the worst Easter road toll in Queensland in more than 20 years and we went into the forum with a collective determination to turn these terrible statistics around,\u201d Ms Miller said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ms Miller said the Queensland Police Service would investigate expanding automatic number plate recognition technology in police vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, dangerous unregistered and unlicensed drivers have been over-represented in crash statistics. Greater use of this technology will give police the resources they need to target reckless and irresponsible drivers,” she said.<\/p>\n

There will also be enhanced drug driving operations across the State by police.<\/p>\n

Mr Bailey said immediate measures would be taken to target distracted drivers and people who take drugs and get behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrivers caught committing repeat mobile phone offences within a year can expect double demerits, similar to those imposed on repeat offenders who don\u2019t wear a seatbelt or a motorcycle helmet, or who exceed the speed limit by more than 20km\/h.”<\/p>\n

However, Mr Bailey said the fines would not increase, because it was “not about revenue raising”.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The outcomes of the Safer Roads, Safer Queensland forum will shape the Queensland’s Road Safety Action Plan over the next two years:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Prioritise motorcycle safety for new and returning riders, including a TV and social media campaign in June 2015<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n
    • Introduce motorcycle licensing reforms, such as pre-learner training courses, to be progressed in consultation with stakeholders, industry partners and the community<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
      • Launch a youth road safety innovation challenge to engage with 16 to 24-year-olds by brainstorming key issues and innovative solutions, as the first step in broader engagement with young people<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          \n
        • Form a Citizens\u2019 Taskforce to report back to government about complex road safety issues, including ways to encourage safe driving<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            \n
          • Introduce double demerit points for two or more mobile phone offences committed within one year, similar to current arrangements for repeat seatbelt, motorcycle helmet and high-range speeding offences<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
              \n
            • Address dangerous unregistered and unlicensed drivers who are over\u2011represented in crash statistics with Qld Police to investigate the expansion of Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology in police vehicles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                \n
              • Expand training for road policing officers to better detect and deter broader criminal activities, including enhanced drug driving operations across Queensland<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                  \n
                • Host a Queensland Road Safety Week in August in partnership with other stakeholders to engage the community in important conversations about road safety<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  Motorists repeatedly caught texting or using their mobile phone while driving will face double demerit points – but not doubled fines – under changes announced today by the State Government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":107327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[1132],"yoast_head":"\nCrackdown On Phone Fiends - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crackdown On Phone Fiends - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Motorists repeatedly caught texting or using their mobile phone while driving will face double demerit points - but not doubled fines - under changes announced today by the State Government.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-20T09:50:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-12T06:28:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/mobilephone.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/\",\"name\":\"Crackdown On Phone Fiends - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-20T09:50:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-12T06:28:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Crackdown On Phone Fiends - southburnett.com.au","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Crackdown On Phone Fiends - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"Motorists repeatedly caught texting or using their mobile phone while driving will face double demerit points - but not doubled fines - under changes announced today by the State Government.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2015-05-20T09:50:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-12T06:28:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"620","height":"385","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/mobilephone.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/","name":"Crackdown On Phone Fiends - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-05-20T09:50:53+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-12T06:28:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2015\/05\/20\/crackdown-on-phone-fiends\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107841"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285004,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107841\/revisions\/285004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}