Australians are becoming increasingly confident to drive while using their mobile phones.
The shock findings are contained in a survey of 1,000 Australian drivers by car insurer Budget Direct.
Exactly twenty-two per cent of drivers felt confident using their phone while driving.
The 5-year trend paints a worrying picture for road safety authorities, with confidence growing at a steady rate.
- 2020 – 12%
- 2023 – 19%
- 2025 – 22%
Almost half the survey respondents (45%) admitted using their phone while driving in the past two weeks.
The main way they used their phone while driving was to use a navigation app (23%), followed by checking the phone while stopped at traffic lights (8%).
Over six per cent of people who answered the survey changed songs on a playlist and another 3 per cent read or replied to a text message.
Nearly forty-four per cent of respondents said they used the phone because they felt safe and capable to do so.
Exactly seventeen per cent admitted it was a habit, and 15 per cent claimed it was an emergency.
Despite the increasing confidence in using a phone while driving, 30 per cent of drivers surveyed felt texting while driving was most likely to result in a road fatality, putting it as more dangerous than speeding (18%) and not wearing a seatbelt (5%).
Only drink driving (40%) was considered more likely to result in fatality.
See Budget Direct’s recent survey at: https://www.budgetdirect.com.au/car-insurance/research/mobile-phones-while-driving-survey-statistics.html
