Young woman’s epic battle against state government over traffic fine photo she says shows her holding her vape and not her phone: ‘Quite clearly holding my trusty vape and my phone is on the passenger seat’
- Lillian Morrow is fighting a $1078 fine claiming an AI camera made a mistake
- She says a camera has mistaken her holding a vape for using a phone in her car
- The 19-year-old says her phone can be clearly seen on passenger’s side seat
A teenager is taking her fight over a traffic fine for allegedly touching her phone to court and has hired a lawyer who thinks she has a chance of winning.
Brisbane woman Lillian Morrow, 19, was snapped by AI phone-detection cameras and issued with a $1,078 fine, but when she checked the photo accompanying the penalty notice, she was outraged.
The photo shows Ms Morrow’s left hand up to her face, but it’s not clear what her hand is doing. She claims to have been using her vape at the time, not her phone.
Ms Morrow’s lawyer says drivers can have fines quashed when photos accompanying traffic offences are unclear.
A teenager is taking her fight over a traffic fine for allegedly touching her phone to court and has hired a lawyer who thinks she has a chance of winning
The second the red P-plater saw the image, taken on the M1 near the Gold Coast, she thought it was ‘outright ridiculous’ and decided to fight the fine in court, A Current Affair reported.
Ms Morrow said it’s ‘ridiculously clear’ she wasn’t on her phone.
The photo accompanying the fine also shows what appears to be a phone sitting on her passenger seat.
Aside from the fine, the offence carries four demerit points, meaning she loses her licence for three months.
The photo shows Lillian Morrow’s left hand up to her face, but its not clear what her hand is doing. She claims to have been using her vape at the time, not her phone
Ms Morrow claims she was holding her vape and ‘having an itch’ when the AI camera detection phone snapped her
‘I’m quite confident that I would have been holding a vape, just having an itch, as you do, driving along.’
The teen hired a solicitor, Bill Potts, who says the police have to prove Ms Morrow is holding her phone ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ – which he thinks is difficult in this case.
He said that photos snapped in a split second when drivers travel at 100km/h present a ‘narrow opportunity’ to prove guilt.
‘Often you’re seeing people get off the matter simply because the photographs are unclear or became there is a reasonable defence.’
Ms Morrow posted the black and white photo she says proves her innocence to social media in early December.
Facebook users were divided over what the photo shows.
‘Why does it look like a power cord is running over your seatbelt and up to your vape and why is your vape being held to the left side of your face?’ one sceptic wrote.
But some agreed with her.
‘Looks like a cord but I think this is part of her top, if it was a cord you would see it down the bottom, the phone is on seat beside her, she’s not touching it,’ another wrote.
The teen would lose her driver’s licence over the offence, which she claims is an error by the the AI cameras
Ms Morrow’s lawyer Bill Potts says people can get off fines when the photos accompanying traffic offences are unclear
‘Looks like a vape to me, when you vape, you tend to hold it in your hand and rest it against your head sometimes,’ said another.
The new cameras, which use AI technology to detect mobile phone use and people incorrectly wearing seat belts, have so far caught 80,000 drivers in Queensland.
In 2021, the cameras caught an estimated 270,000 people touching their phones in New South Wales.