‘It’s really bad’: Aussie woman’s disturbing driving confession sparks police warning

An anonymous caller to a national radio station has revealed she regularly watches television while driving – and both police and other road users have confirmed the practice is becoming increasingly common on Australian roads.

A South Australian woman who dialled into Nova's Late Drive with Ben, Liam and Belle on September 23 admitted to watching Turkish soap operas with subtitles while behind the wheel.

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"It's really bad, but I will watch catch-up TV while I'm driving," she said. "It's just so I've got something on in the background, you know, while I'm driving, and there [are] pictures."

Host Liam attempted to clarify, asking "So are you saying it's sort of just on and you're sort of listening to it as if it were like a podcast, like, obviously you're not actually watching it whilst driving right?".

The woman replied "No... I'll watch it as well. I got really obsessed with Turkish soap operas, so I'd have to read subtitles too".

While the hosts criticised the caller, calling her behaviour "really bad" and telling her to "cut that out", it appears watching television while driving is becoming an increasingly common habit on local roads.

One Reddit post from June 2024 shared footage of a driver in Australia watching videos on a dash-mounted mobile phone.

"Besides being an ill-advised distraction – wondering what the law is on this?" the Reddit user asked.

The post was inundated with comments from people who'd witnessed similar behaviour on the roads.

"I was next to a lady in Strathfield two weeks ago, she had a phone horizontally in front of the steering wheel watching a video. Two phones facing her attached to the centre air vents, one in use talking to someone. How she was managing to drive was beyond me," one commenter said.

Another asked "Were they watching it or driving? I have YouTube on pretty often just to listen to something when I’m not in the mood for music on my commute home. It doesn’t mean I’m glued to the screen, I’m just listening along".

In July 2024, an Adelaide father of three was also jailed for watching TV while driving and under the influence of the drug meth, while an ACT Policing spokesperson told Drive, "Two people have been issued with traffic infringement notices for this offence" in the ACT so far in 2024.

A Victoria Police spokesperson told Drive "Too often police see drivers scrolling through a phone on their lap, texting, or even watching videos when their eyes should be on the road".

Yes, driving with any kind of visual display unit visible to a driver is illegal across Australia, with only one exception made for drivers using navigation services like Google Maps or Apple Maps.

Even then, the phone and/or screen has to be properly mounted to your dash and the driver cannot touch or interact with the display – even when the vehicle is stopped.

Otherwise, the applicable offence is "driving a vehicle with a TV/VDU (visual display unit) image visible" and it attracts hundreds of dollars in fines in every state and territory.

For example, in Victoria, the offence attracts a $593 fine and four demerit points.

It's also worth noting that even if a driver isn't holding or actively engaging with the screen, they can still be fined if a passenger is watching something that is in their line of sight.

That means that if your front seat passenger is watching a TV show with the screen facing towards you, or if they briefly show you their screen while you're stopped at the traffic lights, you could also be fined.

"Driving isn’t a secondary activity, it requires your complete attention. Police can be anywhere, anytime, and we run operations targeting mobile phone use," a Victoria Police spokesperson said.

"Motorists can also be caught by mobile phone and seatbelt detection cameras operating across Victoria. If you’re caught using your phone while driving, whether by police or a camera, you should expect to be penalised.

"The penalty is significant for a reason – distraction is a major contributing factor to road trauma."