What’s that? Drivers are baffled by high-tech device appearing on roads in Australian state
- New high-tech gadgets appearing by the side of the road are causing confusion for drivers.
- Many drivers have turned to social media groups to seek more information.
- The brightly colored machines are cameras to spot drivers on their phones.
- They have been criticized as “revenue collectors”, “highway robbery” and “ATMs for cops”.
A new high-tech device dangling over Australia’s roads has left many drivers confused, but for anyone who’s been ticketed for using their phone while driving, the camera is all too familiar.
Mobile phone detection cameras, found across NSW, are used to target drivers using their devices illegally and have recently gone viral on social media as angry road users explode. the secret machine
Although some dismissed the cameras as ‘revenue collectors’, ‘highway robbery’ and ‘ATM for cops’, many welcomed them.
‘People shouldn’t have mobile phones in their hands or on their laps when driving. It may cost someone else their life,” one person wrote in a Facebook group for the Sydney suburb of St Ives.
A new device (pictured) that has appeared on the side of a road has been causing confusion for drivers.
This was reinforced by another sign saying ‘even if the phone is on your lap, it’s an offence.
“I wouldn’t have believed it until it happened to a friend who had her phone in her lap and it ended.”
Some posters saw the post as an opportunity for a joke, with one saying “make sure you take a photo with your mobile phone as you walk past.”
Another joked that he was a ‘vaccine detector’.
‘No reinforcement, laser beam to the forehead,’ they added.
But some complained that the cameras were not accurate enough.
A frustrated driver claimed she was wrongfully fined $1,033 for using her phone while driving because the camera mistook a shadow on her lap for her mobile phone.
New South Wales woman Tracey, 33, was driving from Noosa to Brisbane in January when the camera snapped on her.
Drivers are warned that if they use their mobile phone while driving (pictured), they will be caught by mobile detection units.
He only found the notice of violation, where he also received four demerit points, after returning from a trip abroad, and said he thought there must be a mistake.
“When I opened it up and saw the amount, even before I saw what it was for, I almost had a little heart attack,” he said.
“The evidence they provided was a photo of me driving with both hands on the wheel and three shadows on my body that led them to conclude that at least one of them was a phone.”
Tracey said the size of the shadow didn’t match the shape of her phone and the traffic camera photo provided showed she had both hands on the wheel.
Tracey said the size of the shadow didn’t match the shape of her phone and the speed camera photo provided showed her with both hands on the wheel (above).
Transport NSW said the mobile phone detection cameras would save lives and were “a key initiative in achieving the government’s current targets of reducing road deaths and serious injuries to zero by 2056”.
During a pilot program that ran from January to June 2019, more than 100,000 drivers were found to be using a mobile phone illegally.
One poll found that 80 percent of respondents supported the use of cameras to enforce mobile phone crime.
“Since its implementation, the mobile phone detection camera program has been successful in reducing the illegal use of mobile phones on our roads,” said Transport for NSW.
Motorists like the one pictured are being severely fined for breaking the law by using mobile phones while driving.
The organization also plans to expand the use of cameras to detect those who are not wearing seat belts.
In NSW each year, more than 30 drivers and passengers are killed and around 90 seriously injured in crashes when they are not wearing a seat belt.
“Many of these deaths and injuries could have been prevented if seat belts had been worn,” said Transport for NSW.
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