A road safety survey has revealed Snapchat is a major threat to Queensland drivers.

A new QUT study shows one in six young drivers surveyed had used Snapchat while behind the wheel.

PhD researcher Verity Truelove, from QUT’s Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland (CARRS-Q), surveyed 503 Queensland drivers aged 17 to 25 about using the popular social media app on the road.

She found 16 per cent of survey respondents confessed to using the Snapchat on their mobile phone when driving.

For a few, that use only involved looking at, or replying to, other people’s messages. But 15 per cent of those surveyed said they had used their phone to send a video or photo via Snapchat at the same time as controlling their vehicle.

“Of that 15 per cent, more than half (58 per cent) said their primary motivation was to immediately share a video or photo of something they had seen while they were driving,” Ms Truelove said.

“The vast majority of these app users (71 per cent) said they most commonly used it while stopped at a red light, but three per cent said they most commonly used Snapchat while driving at any speed.”

Ms Truelove said it was important to note that 84 per cent of the surveyed drivers said they did not use Snapchat on the road, and only 12 per cent thought it was acceptable behaviour.

“But the majority of survey respondents (69 per cent) said they knew of someone who did send videos or photos of Snapchat while driving,” she said.

“Looking across the survey and focus groups we conducted, a common theme was that the drivers who used Snapchat thought it was a relatively safe practice because they used it at times they perceived to be low risk, such as when they were stopped at traffic lights.

“This is an encouraging result in some ways – and consistent with other QUT studies that have looked at wider phone use – as it indicates young drivers are trying to self-regulate their behaviour and only use their phone in low-risk situations.

“Another common theme was that most young drivers did not think there was much chance of them being caught by police using their phones, which meant fines weren’t much of a deterrence.  They believed the restriction on hand-held phone use was difficult to enforce.

“But, interestingly, nine drivers in our focus groups mentioned hearing about world-first mobile phone detection camera technology in Australia that involves cameras positioned at a height and angle that can see through the windscreen and photograph drivers using mobile phones.

“The drivers we talked to saw this as a strong deterrent, knowing these types of cameras were ‘out there’ … even though they are only in New South Wales at this stage.

“Increases in perceptions that driver phone use is being monitored may result in increases in obeying the law.  If people think there is a high chance they will be caught, they are more likely not to break the law.

“For some drivers though, safety concerns regarding being harmed or harming others were the biggest deterrents.”

During the focus groups held as part of the study, many drivers shared anecdotes about their friends and themselves, with several citing Snapchat’s speed filter (which identifies and superimposes the speed a vehicle is travelling over a photo).

Comments made at the focus groups included:

  • I Snapchat and drive!
  • Even my friend on her opens was Snapchatting while driving and she nearly killed us.
  • I had a friend who was Snapchatting on like [X] road which is one of those country roads that are just like dead quiet and she crashed and she still Snapchats. Like how do you not learn your lesson from that?
  • I think people do it to be cool because I know a girl who was doing 65 in a school zone and then she took a Snapchat of it. I was like are you trying to kill someone here. I think people do it for the Snapchat, like look at me speeding and using my phone.
  • I think if you were going on social media you would only go on Snapchat, like you wouldn’t go on Facebook or Instagram [participants laugh].
  • Obviously if you know there’s going to be cops there then you’re not going to be on your phone.
  • In the end I think legal [deterrent] is always the way to stop people because no one’s really thinking oh I’m going to crash when I’m doing this.
  • Well, legal is definitely there [as a deterrent] but I feel like for most people they [legal deterrents] are a lot lesser than the physical consequences.

The full study is accessible here.