One-third of drivers still using phone behind the wheel

There is still a high number of people using phones while on the move -- but we're not as bad as neighbouring countries, a landmark study has found.

More than one-third of young drivers are still using their mobiles behind the wheel -- despite several road deaths being linked to phone use and Australia having among the stiffest penalties in the world.

Depending on which state or territory you're in the fine for handling a mobile phone while on the move -- even when it's not in use -- ranges from $250 to $455 and three or four demerit points. That's either one-third or one quarter of your licence for taking or making one handheld phone call, snapping a selfie or browsing social media.

A landmark global study by car maker Ford which compares phone use among drivers around the world has found one-third of Australian drivers aged 20 to 34 years old admitted to using Facebook while behind the wheel.

15 per cent of Australians aged 20 to 34 years old said they had snapped a "selfie" while driving

This figure compares to 53 per cent of young drivers using Facebook while driving in the Philippines and 50 per cent in Thailand.

Meanwhile, 15 per cent of Australians aged 20 to 34 years old said they had snapped a "selfie" while driving, compared to 45 per cent of drivers of the same age in the Philippines, 35 per cent in Thailand and China and 28 per cent in India.

Between 121 and 310 drivers were surveyed from each country in the Asia-Pacific region.

Last year a Ford survey across Europe of 7000 drivers aged 18 to 24 found one-in-three young British drivers admitted to taking a "selfie" while on the move, ahead of those in Germany (28 per cent) and France (28 per cent).

Experts say taking a photo can distract a driver for 14 seconds, enough for a car travelling at 100kmh/h to cover the length of more than three football fields.

A study by Monash University in Melbourne found drivers are 2.8 times more likely to crash when dialing or handling a phone than when driving undistracted.

Police are concerned about the high number of people caught each day using phones while driving, even though several deaths have now been attributed to distracted driving.

Laws have changed to make it illegal to even handle a phone unless it is in a secure cradle or windscreen mounting

In August 2013, 26-year-old Sarah Durazza died after crashing her car into a tree on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

Her boyfriend told police he was talking to her on her mobile phone at the time of the incident, and heard the impact.

To remove any ambiguity, the laws have changed to make it illegal to even handle a phone unless it is in a secure cradle or windscreen mounting.

Many drivers are unaware it is illegal to use a phone whether it's in your lap, away from your ear — or simply holding it, even if a call is not being made.

Ford has been conducting mobile phone use studies around the world for the past year to promote the 'Do Not Disturb' feature on the latest touchscreen that's standard on most new Fords.

The 'Do Not Disturb' icon diverts calls to voicemail and blocks text messages so they can be read out later, although Ford is yet to reveal how many drivers use this feature.

The same system also allows drivers to dictate messages and select music using voice commands.

In May this year Ford's senior technical leader for "human machine interface" told media at a conference at Ford's Detroit headquarters controversially claimed "there is no distracted driving epidemic".

"If you look at a lot of the stories in the media, you would believe there is an epidemic related to driver distraction," said Jeff Greenburg, Ford's technology expert.

"But in fact crash rates have been declining for well over a decade (yet) over the same period of time the number of (mobile phones) has increased exponentially. And so the epidemic of crashes that we might expect, we don't really see reflected in the data, and that's really puzzling to a lot of researchers."