As the ACT government begins its $9 million five-year program to deploy mobile phone detection cameras across the territory, over in the west the same exact technology is being used to address a far wider range of road safety issues.
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When Western Australia Road Safety Commissioner Adrian Warner last year described his state as having a wide-ranging "road culture problem", the government responded with six overhead camera rigs on Perth's metro and regional roads.
Road trauma had spiked in the west and issues like seatbelts, driving while fatigued, using phones while driving, speeding and drink/drug driving were prolific.
But where the ACT is rolling out the same technology to focus specifically on people using mobile phones while driving, WA is extracting far more from the technology by using the cameras to check for seatbelt usage, and for point-to-point speed detection.
There is also the further potential for the cameras to be loaded with the same database the police access to scan number plates and hunt down unregistered vehicles.
Queensland, which like the ACT had its highest road toll last year for more than 10 years, also uses the same cameras for seatbelt usage detection.
While enforcement data never reveals an accurate picture, seatbelt compliance is at reasonably high levels in the ACT. In 2022, just 41 traffic infringement notices and six cautions were issued for people not wearing belts, compared with 77 in total the year before and 218 in 2020.
Speeding, however, remains a constant issue in the ACT, as does unregistered vehicles, and the Australian-developed Acusensus overhead camera technology can be programmed to address both issues, as well as the mobile phone problem. The ACT government says it may look at the extra capabilities later.
In WA, the mobile camera rigs are being trialled for mobile point-to-point speed detection, with driver speed averaged between the two camera points.
The territory's current road safety action plan, which is due for revision this year, said "there continues to be an unacceptable level of speeding in the ACT".
The government plans a review this year of "speeding offences and their associated penalties, to ensure that they are operating as a sufficient and effective deterrent".
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Five of the Acusensus camera rigs have been leased for the ACT. Three are transportable devices and initially will be installed on Yamba Drive, Canberra Avenue and Horse Park Drive while fixed devices are being placed on the existing overhead gantries on Hindmarsh Drive and Gungahlin Drive.
The cameras will gather data until October, when infringement notices will be issued.
A study by the Monash University Accident Research Centre last year found nomophobia - the term coined for the irrational, almost pathological fear of being without a mobile phone - may be a cause.
"The stronger our relationship with smartphones, the more likely endogenous distractions occur in spaces that demand or benefit from our attention, such as driving a vehicle," the study said.
The study also found younger people and women were more likely to have higher levels of nomophobia and, in turn, how nomophobia severity increased the likelihood of engaging in illegal smartphone use while driving.
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