New crackdown on mobile phones on the move

Three-quarters of people believe that drivers who use their mobile phones are needlessly risking their own and other people’s safety, according to a YouGov poll of 1,985 adults conducted on behalf of the Department for Transport.

The research also showed that 90% of the public believe using a phone at the wheel has a negative impact on a person’s driving.

It is now more than 12 months since the Government toughened the penalty for the use of a hand-held mobile phone to three penalty points and a £60 fine. A survey of police forces in England and Wales showed that 185,000 drivers were caught using a hand-held mobile last year.

While it remains legal to use a hands-free phone while driving, numerous amounts of research show that drivers are just as likely to be distracted and crash as a result of concentrating on their telephone conversations. Indeed, last year almost 3,000 drivers were issued with a £60 fixed penalty notice and three points for failing to have proper control of their vehicle as a result of being distracted by a hands-free phone conversation.

The £1.5 million THINK! campaign has not only been designed to encourage drivers not to use their mobile phones, but is also targeted at employers.

Prosecuted

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “If you are an employer you can be prosecuted if you require employees to make or receive mobile calls while driving. It is an offence to cause or permit the use of a hand-held mobile phone when driving. It is also an offence to cause or permit a driver not to have proper control of a vehicle.

“Callers also play an important role in keeping the roads safe. If the person you are speaking to is driving, please terminate the call and arrange to speak to them later.”

Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick added: “It’s quite simple – driving and mobile phones don’t mix. Using a mobile when behind the wheel makes you four times more likely to have a crash and a phone call just isn’t worth that risk.

“However, too many people are still putting themselves and others in danger for the sake of a phone call.”

Meanwhile, the Sentencing Guidelines Council has still to decide on tougher punishments for drivers who kill. A consultation on punishments closed in March.

It proposed that drivers who killed after ‘flagrantly ignoring the rules of the road and disregard the danger they pose to others’ should be given jail terms of at least seven years and as many as 14 years in some cases.

Guidelines

The consultation guidelines covered four offences – causing death by dangerous driving, causing death by careless driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, causing death by careless driving and causing death by driving unlicensed, disqualified or uninsured.

In relation to mobile phone use, the Council has called for a ‘robust approach’. The consultation said: “The fact that an offender was avoidably distracted by a hand-held mobile phone when the offence was committed will always make an offence more serious. Reading or composing text messages over a period of time will be a gross avoidable distraction likely to result in an offence being in the highest level of seriousness.”

Sentences for cases of careless driving just falling short of dangerous driving should have a starting point of 15 months jail, the council has recommended. Meanwhile, cases involving ‘momentary inattention’ and no aggravating factors are likely to attract a community sentence.

Last year, the Crown Prosecution Service published proposals calling for an offence of dangerous driving as a result of using a mobile phone to carry a two-year jail term (RoadSafe: autumn/winter 2007).

Texting is rife among drivers

A survey of 2,000 Facebook users has alarmingly revealed that 45% of UK drivers use short message services (SMS) whilst driving. Only 11% of motorists turn off their phones or switch them to mute – leaving 89% of drivers open to the distractions caused by mobile phones.

Drivers who text while on the move face the same penalties as motorists speaking on a hand-held mobile phone – a £60 fine and three penalty points.

It was discovered in the survey that the young and techno savvy were more likely to text and drive in congested parts of the country, and that the level of texting whilst driving differed throughout the UK. It was highest in London (53%), and Manchester (50%), and lowest in Aberdeen (31%), Edinburgh (36%), Bristol (36%) and Glasgow (38%).

Elizabeth Dainton, research development manager for the RAC Foundation, said: “The survey clearly demonstrates that a large proportion of UK drivers are breaking the law by texting and driving. Urgent action is needed to address this increasing problem.

“Using a mobile phone while driving means you are four times more likely to have a crash. If you have an accident whilst texting and driving, you can be prosecuted for not using due care and attention.”

Recently, driver Kiera Coultas (25), a hotel manager, was jailed for four years after she killed cyclist Jordan Wickington (19) while sending a text message on her mobile phone. She was driving at 45 mph in a 30 mph limit when she crossed a road junction in her BMW in Southampton in February last year, Southampton Crown Court heard. Coultas, of Hythe, Hampshire, had denied dangerous driving but was found guilty by a jury. She was also banned from driving for five years.

FirstGroup bans use of all phones on the move

This year’s decision was based on research from TRL (Transport Research Laboratory) that showed an accident risk four times greater and that persists for up to 10 minutes after the telephone call has been completed.

The research adds to a growing body of evidence that driving performance is significantly impaired when holding a telephone conversation. Research suggests that driver performance while making a hands-free telephone conversation is at a lower level than when driving at the UK legal limit of alcohol intoxication.

An internal communications programme – including thought provoking posters and DVDs – has been launched by the company to support the policy and detailed advice on the new policy has been given to staff throughout the UK and North America. It reminds them that mobile phones and other devices capable of making or receiving calls must be switched off when driving and to check that when receiving calls made by FirstGroup staff they are complying with the policy.

Banned

FirstGroup’s bus and train drivers are already banned from using mobile phones when driving but are allowed to use other communications equipment (such as radios) to give and receive operational information from control centres, rail signallers etc.

Moir Lockhead, chief executive of FirstGroup, said: “Our philosophy at First is simple: If you cannot do it safely, don’t do it. When we reviewed the evidence produced by TRL we decided to implement this new policy and to put a company-wide communications campaign in place to inform our staff.

“This decision is in line with our injury prevention programme, which is designed to create a safe working environment for our staff and to ensure we deliver safe services to our passengers.”

Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick backed the move saying: “We know that using a mobile phone distracts drivers and so welcome this move by FirstGroup. Mobile phones are very important to businesses so our advice to drivers is simple – if you can’t switch off, switch to voicemail and pick up your messages when you are parked.”

Dr Nick Reed, senior human factors researcher at TRL, said: “The research demonstrated that drivers show a significant impairment when making mbile phone calls whilst driving. In some aspects of driving behaviour, speaking on a mobile phone is worse than being at the legal alcohol limit. The observed impairment was similar regardless of whether the call was made using a hand-held phone or using a hands-free kit.”Dr Nick Reed, senior human factors researcher at TRL, said: “The research demonstrated that drivers show a significant impairment when making mbile phone calls whilst driving. In some aspects of driving behaviour, speaking on a mobile phone is worse than being at the legal alcohol limit. The observed impairment was similar regardless of whether the call was made using a hand-held phone or using a hands-free kit.”

Steve Green, ACPO lead on road policing and chief constable of Nottinghamshire Police, said when the ban was introduced: “Anything that causes a distraction to the driver of a vehicle is bound to lead to an increased risk of involvement in a collision.

“While it is not an offence to use a handsfree mobile phone, the decision taken by FirstGroup shows that they are taking road safety seriously.

“As such, we welcome their decision and would ask other employers to consider adopting a similar policy.”

<< Back to contents page

• < previous article
• |
• next article >