The seatbelt people can kill themselves off, nothing to worry about there. Mobile phones definitely continue to be a big concern though. The number of people who are suspiciously glancing down at their lap every few seconds out on the road is pretty crazy.
There's a big misconception about mobile phones and driving, and it's putting us at risk
Submitted 1 year ago by DavidDoesLemmy@aussie.zone to australia@aussie.zone
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-04/road-safety-history-australia-toll-increase/102903364
Comments
Ilandar@aussie.zone 1 year ago
Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
I disagree with the first part of this take for a few reasons. Aside from not wanting people to die unnecessary, not wearing seat belts increases the chance of injury. If you’re injured in a car accident, someone is probably going to call an ambulance. There are only so many of those to go around so not wearing a seatbelt does impact others as well. That said we already have laws around that so not much more we can do.
Salvo@aussie.zone 1 year ago
I can’t believe the amount of people who are arguing over this.
If you are in control of 1.5 tonnes of something travelling at 60km/h you should;
- concentrate on what you are doing, exclusively!
- not get into physical argument with someone else in control of 1.5 tonnes of something.
If you are emotionally unable to leave your fucking phone alone, you shouldn’t be fucking driving!
AOCapitulator@hexbear.net 1 year ago
Its a good thing everyone who shouldnt be driving can just decide to not drive and will not have their lives destroyed as a result!
Salvo@aussie.zone 1 year ago
No that is a problem with our society that we can do something about.
Unfortunately there are too many dinosaurs fighting for FrEeDoM and preventing any progress on Walkable Neighbourhoods.
naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
For sure, but also phone have been deliberately engineered on the hardware and software level to be as addicting and habit forming as possible.
From attention grabbing chimes (not insane, you want to know when you’re messaged normally) to notification spam to superstimuli applications. We need to shift some responsibility on manufacturers for exploiting holes in human psychology.
Anti litter campaigns get you so far, putting bins everywhere gets you further. Work safety videos get you so far, lock out tag out systems take you further
naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
The specific use of phones is barely discussed but worth doing so.
For example talking on a phone, or even in a car, is highly distracting and delays reactions. Passengers are generally more sensitive to context and weirdly somehow less distracting than phones. So that’s something important to consider.
Listening to the radio is slightly distracting, and likewise listening to the radio played through the phone with notifications off. Doing this is probably fine and we should design roads and cars around the idea that people will listen to music, or sing, or whatever.
Fiddling with the radio is extremely dangerous, I’m sure we’ve all been rear ended or nearly so by someone doing it, and probably had a couple of “oops shouldn’t have done that” moments ourselves. Likewise fiddling with phones.
The idea of banning all phone usage is a non starter, but we can probably introduce regulations like phones disabling certain features while cars are in motion but leaving them as useful for navigation and music etc.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 year ago
phones disabling certain features while cars are in motion
A non-starter, unless it’s an option made available to the user in the way that “car mode” already is. You can’t just have it be automatic, because not everyone in a car is driving (even if the vast majority are). And if you were going purely on speed, you’d end up catching bus and train users too, which are almost entirely not driving.
naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Mmm you can definitely do stuff with pairing to a car disabling notifications etc.
if you want to send a text unpair as a passenger.
Shaping behaviour isn’t about being flawless, it’s about raising the barriers to antisocial behaviour.
The fact of the matter is that if we want to use heavy machinery we need to be willing to accept some restrictions for safety. you can’t wear thongs in a machine shop and maybe you can’t browse the web with your phone paired to the car.
Salvo@aussie.zone 1 year ago
I would love if it was disabled for everyone in my car. It is even pretty distracting when someone else (or more than one other person) is trying to have a conversion when I am driving, listening to music, audiobook or podcast.
Please shut the fuck up when I’m driving!
Marin_Rider@aussie.zone 1 year ago
introduce regulations like phones disabling certain features while cars are in motion but leaving them as useful for navigation and music etc.
my phone spotify goes into ‘car mode’ when driving, which is even more of a distraction to me, where the usual app i can operate almost in my sleep, the different layout means it takes me more concentration how to figure out how to change songs or whatever, despite all the icons being bigger and technically ‘easier’ to use.
not that im encouraging using it at all when in the car, im guilty and im sure a lot of people are too, but theres an example where the attempt to make something safer in my case actually made it more dangerous
naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
sure, and people have made braking assist programs that are hypersensitive and get disabled.
Exactly because people going it alone make arse decisions is why guidlines and regulations would be a good thing to have.
AnagrammadiCodeina@feddit.it 1 year ago
In Italy whatever active use of a phone is banned already by the law. If an officer sees you with a phone they can stop you and issue a fine. Stil its not enforced enough
naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
banning stuff doesn’t stop it. see tax evasion or fascism
Tau@aussie.zone 1 year ago
It’s a real show of how much road safety discussion is fixated on lowering speed limits when you’ve just talked about how significant numbers of people are now not wearing seatbelts and the topic you move straight into is decreasing speed limits and driving more slowly instead of how to increase the number of people wearing seatbelts…
abhibeckert@beehaw.org 1 year ago
I dunno where you live, but about twice a day now I pass under a camera (which moves every day) that detects seat belts and issues outrageously high fines.
The numbers probably aren’t in yet for how effective that is, but something is definitely being done about seatbelts.
ryannathans@aussie.zone 1 year ago
Clickbait, no new info here. Driving the old “reduce speed limits” rhetoric again. As cars get safer speeds should be going up, especially on long roads where fatigue is the biggest cause of crashes
Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 year ago
As cars get safer speeds should be going up
Unfortunately, cars are getting less safe, not safer.
For other road users, anyway.
unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone 1 year ago
By your reasoning we would lose all safety improvements and maintain the unsatisfactory level of safety we have now
ryannathans@aussie.zone 1 year ago
Implying increasing speed increases deaths? This has been studied to death, increasing speed limits on long roads would reduce deaths. No need to make a strawman
root@aussie.zone 1 year ago
We should start by having all learner drivers go through proper driving school taught by proper licensed instructors. Allowing a family member do the teaching just invites bad / dangerous habits to be taught / learned.
gabbagabbahey@lemm.ee 1 year ago
“road toll remains flat”
Fails to account for increasing population
LineNoise@kbin.social 1 year ago
In Victoria I’d be amazed if the terrible state of our road surfaces aren’t a contributing factor, particularly regionally. There’s a backlog of work that runs back before COVID because of changes to road maintenance funding and staffing.
The other grim factor is that with our mental health crisis, cost of living pressures etc. not all single vehicle accidents without seatbelts will be accidental.
abhibeckert@beehaw.org 1 year ago
According to federal government, there were 0.63 deaths per 100 million kilometres travelled in 2010, and 0.44 in 2020.
That’s a 30% improvement in actual road safety (nationwide) over the last ten years. I’m not sure what the numbers are for Victoria but I’m sure it’s in the same ballpark.
prime_factor@aussie.zone 1 year ago
There’s also been a lot of substandard materials used by DoT contractors post Covid, which means that the project supervisors also really have to keep an eye on things as well
However all the good regional supervisors at the DoT have gone into consultancy, leaving their regional offices staffed with a lot of graduates.
TheHolm@aussie.zone 1 year ago
Damn. It looks really scary. 100% looks like roundabout, I would yeld to “give way” but it cost me some moment to realise that I need to yeld for any car.
SLfgb@feddit.nl 1 year ago
The solution is not to chide people. Their behaviour is not gonna change. The solution is to urban plan the need for car use away for most people. Less urban sprawl. More urban centers. More medium-density housing. Better public transport. You name it.
Maoo@hexbear.net 1 year ago
As a rule, distrust cops trying to give you safety advice.
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 1 year ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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But a coalition of different parties was pushing for change — including many in the medical profession, like trauma surgeons who were witnessing the devastation firsthand.
“There were get-out clauses,” says Mark King, an adjunct professor at QUT’s Centre for Road Safety and Accident Research.
Terry Slevin, the CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia, says pubs and clubs argued random breath testing was “anti-business”.
In 1982, for example, the NSW Australian Hotels Association president Barry McInerney called random breath testing “an imposition on the working class”.
David Cliff, a former police officer and CEO of the Global Road Safety Partnership, says while it’s not always popular, cutting speed limits has the ability to save lives in both regional and metropolitan Australia.
The original article contains 1,220 words, the summary contains 149 words. Saved 88%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 1 year ago
To save you a click:
Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world 1 year ago
But one of these is legal and the other is not, why is that?
Marsupial@quokk.au 1 year ago
Big Hands Free doesn’t like it when you ask questions.
samson@aussie.zone 1 year ago
The level of distraction is one thing, but the level of dexterity is different. It’s a lot easier to drive straight looking at a phone (or even interacting with one) that’s in a cradle.
settoloki@lemmy.one 1 year ago
How would you police it? Can’t know if someone is using their device if they’re not holding it, they could be singing to the radio or talking to themselves.