Double demerits for Qld drivers on phones

Queensland's government is cracking down on drivers caught using mobile phones to try to cut the road toll.

Government figures show 15 people have died on the state's roads so far this year, an 18 per cent rise over the same period on 2014.

Roads Minister Mark Bailey says penalising multiple incidents of phone use with double demerit penalties will make roads safer.

He says there's strong evidence that 75 per cent of drivers use their phones, meaning they're not looking at the road.

"We make no apologies for being tough on people who are using mobile phones in their car and we want to eliminate that as a behaviour," he said.

Tougher penalties for phone use is just one part of an eight-point plan to ensure road safety drawn up by the government. This follows its road safety forum last month.

The plan includes prioritising motorbike safety with an advertising campaign, introducing motorbike licensing reforms, forming a citizens' taskforce to report road safety issues to the government and a youth program to engage people aged 16 to 24 in road safety.

Dangerous unregistered cars and unlicensed drivers will be subject to stricter monitoring by police, officers will get more training in road safety and there will be a new Queensland Road Safety Week in August.

However, none of the new measures deals with speeding or drink driving.

Mr Bailey admitted there were no figures indicating the proportion of accidents caused by mobile phone distraction in the state.

"That data doesn't exist in itself, we know that a number of factors cause accidents," he said.

Both police and the RACQ, the state's peak motoring body, said cracking down on phone use would save lives.