VCÖ calls for phone-detection cameras on Austrian roads

Austria’s traffic club VCÖ is calling for a change to the Road Traffic Act to allow cameras that detect mobile phone use while driving, ORF reported.

Germany is planning nationwide use of so-called phone cameras, which automatically identify whether drivers are looking at a phone. The technology is intended to make it easier for police to enforce the ban on using a phone at the wheel. The devices are not currently permitted in Austria.

In Burgenland, distraction was the most common cause of road crashes involving injuries in 2025. The VCÖ said mobile phone distraction was responsible for about 40 percent of those crashes.

Last year, 4,265 drivers in Burgenland were caught using phones while driving, twice the number recorded 15 years earlier. Across Austria, about 112,000 drivers were caught.