Broken-down drivers misuse beacons

Broken-down drivers misuse beacons

STRANDED drivers are using emergency locator beacons as a virtual roadside service, summoning helicopters and rescue teams to help with minor engine trouble or bogged cars, according to authorities.

Figures from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which co-ordinates all signals from distress beacons, show Australians are increasingly misusing the devices and the national system set up to respond.

A personal emergency beacon.

A personal emergency beacon.Credit:Kirk Gilmour

More than 248,000 emergency beacons are registered in Australia, with nearly 5000 registered to ACT owners. So far this year, 1700 have been triggered nationally, of which 266 resulted in searches, with only 109 found to be genuine emergencies.

A map of where the beacons are being activated shows many are being triggered in capital cities or urban areas.


An AMSA spokeswoman said there had been 400 inadvertent activations and 21 confirmed hoaxes so far this year. Some signals have been traced to rubbish dumps where signals from older 121.5MHz frequency devices that have been thrown out and triggered have been picked up by passing aircraft.

This month, Portland police launched a rescue operation in response to a beacon set off in a state forest and thrown into a dam.

In December, a rescue helicopter was sent to Tasmania's west coast chasing a lost beacon that had been activated by wave action. West Australian police have already successfully prosecuted and recovered rescue costs from those maliciously triggering devices.

The changeover to the 406Mhz frequency has also led to problems with parents thinking signals from older devices would no longer be picked up and giving them to children.

"The ease of use of the distress beacon can make it the first, rather than the last, line of requesting assistance," the spokeswoman said.

"Unfortunately we have seen misuse of the distress beacon system through drivers activating their beacons due to minor engine trouble … [or becoming] bogged or broken down in areas where there is no other means of gathering assistance."

Australia has the highest per capita use of distress beacons in the world, with more than 3000 new devices registered every month. While authorities are eager to encourage their take-up to protect lives, the cost of sending helicopters and rescue teams to hoaxes or false alarms risks putting a dent in rescue budgets.

The Snowy Hydro SouthCare helicopter that services the Canberra and southern NSW area was called to nine non-medical search and rescues last financial year. Fully laden with staff and equipment, the helicopter costs about $6000 an hour to operate.

Chief executive Owen Finegan said the cost of responding to false alarms needed to be balanced against the cost of searching for those who did not have the proper equipment with them, such as a search that lasted for three days late last year for a woman trapped in her car near Tumut.

"You obviously can't carry them with you all the time and the majority of people do take risks into consideration, but accidents can still happen even when well-prepared, so we encourage people to carry beacons when going into the bush or out in a boat where they might need them," Mr Finegan said.

Most Viewed in National