{"id":606168,"date":"2026-04-14T11:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/606168\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T11:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:54:14","slug":"south-australian-police-road-safety-chief-shane-johnson-sparks-probe-with-cycling-selfie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/606168\/","title":{"rendered":"South Australian Police road safety chief Shane Johnson sparks probe with cycling selfie"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Australia\u2019s<\/a> top traffic officer is facing an internal investigation after being fined for using his mobile phone while riding his bicycle \u2014 the same offence he has spent years warning motorists and cyclists to avoid.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Shane Johnson, who leads SAPOL\u2019s Traffic Services Branch, was issued an expiation notice after a photo he posted to his Strava account late last year showed him taking a selfie while cycling on a suburban street.<\/p>\n

WATCH ABOVE: SA\u2019s top traffic cop fined for mobile use while cycling<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

In the image, supplied to the Adelaide Advertiser,<\/a> Johnson is smiling, wearing a helmet and goggles, with one hand on the handlebars and the other holding his phone in front of him.<\/p>\n

Under South Australian road rules, cyclists are subject to the same mobile phone restrictions as drivers.<\/p>\n

\"ShaneShane Johnson has been fined for using his mobile to take a photo of himself while cycling Credit: The Advertiser<\/p>\n

The incident has now triggered a conduct investigation, with the matter referred to SAPOL\u2019s Ethical and Professional Standards Branch.<\/p>\n

Police confirmed the Police Commissioner authorised the release of information about the complaint under the Police Complaints and Discipline Act.<\/p>\n

Johnson fronted the media on Tuesday afternoon, issuing a personal statement in which he accepted \u201cfull responsibility\u201d for the breach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI acknowledge I have done the wrong thing and accept the consequences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He explained he had just completed a six\u2011and\u2011a\u2011half\u2011hour, 202km training ride with friends on October 18 and was less than 100 metres from home when he took the photo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was riding at just a few kilometres an hour in a back street with no other vehicles present when I took the picture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, this is not an excuse for my lapse in judgement. No one is immune from road traffic laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said the incident reinforced the importance of staying alert and avoiding distractions, adding that even experienced road users can make mistakes.<\/p>\n

The internal investigation remains ongoing.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australia\u2019s top traffic officer is facing an internal investigation after being fined for using his mobile phone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[3443,64,63,784,44,22122,10174,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-606168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-adelaide","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sa-news","14":"tag-sa-police","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}