“We’ve seen an increase in drivers watching Netflix and TV shows in traffic. There’s a lot of that on the motorways in the mornings. People are watching a big Netflix series while they’re in traffic.”
A Garda member relays some of the routine motoring offences he has encountered amid a recent surge in detections on the roads. The offence detected most often is that of mobile phone use, up by more than 11 per cent last year to 24,000 cases.
“You also have a lot of young drivers – and you are talking that 17- to 20-year-old age range – making Snapchats while driving. And then, probably the older drivers, holding the phone to record and send voice notes.”
Gardaí who spoke to The Irish Times accepted the number of drivers being caught using their phones represented just a tiny fraction of the true level of phone-related offending on the roads.
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It is a cause of distraction that results in a large number of crashes, including many minor rear-ending incidents on motorways, but also fatal collisions, usually when mobile phone use is combined with higher speeds.
Many drivers watching TV or streaming services are not holding their phones, so cannot be sanctioned for mobile phone use. But they can be pursued for the offence of careless driving.
“I think the word went around a few years ago that once you weren’t actually holding the phone, it was fair game, you could do what you wanted on the phone. But that’s not the case,” one source said. “Careless driving is one of those ‘catch-alls’, it’s broad and it can, and regularly does, apply to mobile phones.”
While the latest crime trend data to the end of last year shows mobile phone use detections increasing, the offence of careless driving – driving without reasonable consideration – was up by 25 per cent last year to just over 7,100 cases detected.
Very young drivers are now regularly coming to the attention of An Garda Síochána for “complete recklessness”, as one source put it. A common activity is recording videos of their driving for sharing on Snapchat, often sending them and replying to the messages they generate while they are behind the wheel.
“Most of the time, we have to see you [holding a phone],” one Garda source said. “It’s an intercept offence, you have to be stopped. The UK use AI cameras to detect mobile phone offences in urban, city areas, but we don’t have them here yet.”
Other sources said the roll-out of average speed cameras – which detect speeding by recording a driver at two different points – had been so slow, so they had no expectation that cameras using artificial intelligence (AI) would be introduced in Ireland in the near, or even medium, term.
Aside from being spotted using a phone in a vehicle, a driver could be pursued for sanction if dashcam or other footage were submitted to the Garda and it captured the offence clearly.
In such cases, gardaí often pursue a case of driving without reasonable consideration. As is the case for the offence of mobile phone use, a fixed charge notice also applies. A case only goes to court if the driver refuses to pay the fine and accept the penalty points.
“It’s become such an ignorant thing to do now: drivers are very unlikely to get the benefit of discretion [from a Garda member],” another source said about catching drivers using mobile phones.
“Even with speeding, if the driver was only very slightly over the limit, they might get a warning and get discretion. But with mobile phones, no ... that’s more or less gone now. If you’re caught on the phone, you’re getting a ticket. That’s it.”
