[QLD] Mobile Phone Restrictions While Driving

Hi.

so there is one part of the mobile phone restrictions while driving that could be open to confusion on the queensland road rules website. it states:

"If you're an open or P2 licence holder, you are also allowed to touch your mobile phone for hands-free use if, for example, the phone is in a cradle attached to the vehicle. Hands-free use can include:

accepting a call
using navigation apps
skipping a song
accepting/ending a trip as a rideshare driver."

Note that other states usually allow Poll option 1 where the rules are more clearly written.

So how do you guys understand this part, especially the meaning of 'Hand-free' (Please vote).

Poll Options

  • 42
    I can touch the phone while it is in the car's cradle but not have it in my hand
  • 2
    I can not touch the phone at all, only use the voice command functions (Siri, google assistant...)

Comments

  • +6

    gone are the days when you have only 1 mixed casette tape of current songs that were recorded off video hits and on repeat in your car constantly until you made a new tape.

    my partners era was to make mix CD's that skipped when you bought crap quality CD's to burn

    my kids, hey google play baby shark on spotify

    • +2

      my partners era was to make mix CD's that skipped when you bought crap quality CD's to burn

      Or if you didn't know how to use the volume levelling function when burning, all the songs are different volume levels

    • +4

      Nero Burning ROM FTW!

    • +1

      My kids have caught on when I say “hey Siri, message wife “coming home now””, they’ll shout random things out so it gets added to the text

      Can’t be bothered fixing it, so my messages to the wife say stuff like “coming home now smell fart elephants love love kiss”

      • And what do they say when the kids are in the car?

  • +2

    I did always think before this how funny it was that you could get fined for stuffing around with your phone (or even having it on your lap) - but stuffing around with the centre console display was fair game. I usually have my phone connected/charging via apple carplay and it basically just extends the interface to the middle screen, which is in a way far more distracting…

    • The centre console display is a permanently hands-free screen, unlike a phone, which provides an opportunity to hold it, move it and get distracted far more easily. And that's not even taking into account that the text size is smaller on a phone, so your eyes are constantly shifting between short and medium distance vision (which can sometimes take a second or so to adjust for some people).

  • +2

    I believe their term 'Hands Free' mean handling of the phone. Tapping on the screen doesn't construe handling. Unless you are spinning it like a harlem globetrotter.

  • +1

    Qld Road Rule 300

    (5) In this section—
    mobile phone does not include a CB radio or any other two-way radio.
    use, in relation to a mobile phone, means hold the phone in the driver’s hand, or rest the phone on any part of the driver’s body—
    (a) whether or not the phone is on or operating; and
    (b) whether or not for the purpose of operating the phone or a function of the phone; and
    (c) whether or not the phone is partially or wholly supported by another part of the driver’s body or another thing.

    Weirdly enough, there is no mention of Learner or P1 drivers in the Qld Road Rules with regards to phone use… Unless I missed it??

  • +1

    How is that confusing? Don’t use your phone unless in a cradle. It might be a bit daft to allow phone use in a cradle without specifying what you can use it for.

    You need to find the actual rule, not some interpretation. Like the text pegaxs has provided, it the bit about what you can use it for. There’s some rules around video on screens not visible to the driver as well.

    Edit: read this: http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_reg/rr2014104…

  • Pity for what could be a lovely state run by total moroons! Just pay the cop! At the end of the day the number of public servants out of about 600 I know has very few that actually care!

  • You can touch it for brief period's is the basics of it, but if the officer finds you playing pokemon go they are still going to fine you for mobile phone use.

Login or Join to leave a comment