In New South Wales, the police have begun to check phone records of drivers involved in fatal accidents to see if they were talking or texting at the time.
Their findings? Almost 1300 more motorists in New South Wales have been caught talking on their phone, without a handsfree kit, in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year.

Mobile phones are now “the number one suspect” in crashes involving inattention, according to the policeman whose unit investigates the state’s worst collisions. But their main hitch is that almost 90 per cent of phones get destroyed in fatal crashes, making it impossible to see if the driver was writing a text message.
Yet there is evidence that talking is just as bad as drink driving, and text messaging is even worse. However Research fellow at Monash University’s Accident Research Centre, Kristie Young, said research had shown using a handsfree kit was just as dangerous as going without.