Drivers Are Still Flouting The Mobile Phone Laws

Sunday, 9. August 2009

What Car have reminded us of the dangers of using a phone whilst driving. They have estimated that around 100,000 drivers are risking their lives and prosecution, at any point in time, by using a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving. The original laws introduced in 2003 were beefed up in 2007 to guarantee you 3 points on your licence and a £60 fine if caught using a mobile phone whilst driving (which means the engine is running even though you may not be moving). As What Car points out, even with hands free kits now costing less than £10, drivers are still taking major risks with themselves, their passengers and other road users. In 2007, 25 deaths on the road were directly attributable to using a mobile phone whilst driving. In a survey carried out by What Car they observed 1.9% of drivers using a mobile whilst driving during two hour long surveys involving 2,446 cars. The percent may seem low but that represents a total of 825,000 of the total number of drivers in the UK. They even witnessed the driver of a double decker bus talking on a hand-held phone as well as drivers on a roundabout. Texting is more difficult to observe but much more dangerous as the driver’s eyes are off the road for longer. The biggest danger is with 18-24 year olds, a third of which say they text on a regular basis and in a survey of 16-24 year olds a third said they didn’t think that texting whilst driving was dangerous compared to 86% of all adults. So drivers should be more aware of the dangers and don’t forget that if you kill someone whilst using a mobile phone you will probably face a prison sentence and worse have to live with the fact that you killed someone because you were, as What Car put it, dying to talk to or text someone. If you haven’t got one, get a handsfree kit. By Graham Hill