Traffic club urges Austria to deploy phone-use cameras

Austria should introduce cameras to detect drivers using mobile phones, the Austrian Traffic Club (VCÖ) says, citing thousands of offences and a high number of distraction-related crashes. ORF reports that the group wants the legal changes needed to allow the system.

Germany’s transport ministry wants to permit the cameras nationwide. They have been used in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate since April 2025. The cameras automatically detect whether a driver is using a smartphone, after which police officers review the image to confirm whether an offence occurred. Austria would need to amend its Road Traffic Act before the cameras could be used.

The VCÖ says distraction was Vorarlberg’s most common cause of road crashes involving injuries last year, accounting for one in three such crashes. Its analysis of Statistics Austria data found that 894 people were injured in crashes caused by distraction or inattention, including three who died. Across Austria, there were 12,882 injury crashes attributed to distraction or inattention.

VCÖ expert Klara Maria Schenk said many drivers still did not understand the risks of talking on the phone or reading messages while driving. The group says drivers who talk with a phone held to their ear react as poorly as someone driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.8 per mille. Reading a text message can leave a driver looking away from the road for about two seconds, during which a car travelling at 50 kilometres per hour covers almost 30 metres.

Police caught 112,317 drivers using a phone at the wheel in Austria last year, including 4,381 in Vorarlberg. The Vorarlberg figure was 4,668 in 2024 and 3,656 in 2023. The VCÖ says these cases represent only a fraction of the actual offences.