YP Letters: Drink-drivers not the only menace on roads

Driving while using a mobile phone is just as dangerous as drink driving.

POLICE have reported motorists watching videos, using a laptop, texting, using a hand-held mobile, reading and writing while driving. In his otherwise persuasive piece “Deadly drivers must face the consequences” (The Yorkshire Post, January 12), Andrew Vine focuses only on drink-driving. This is unsurprising, because, no matter how dangerous other offences are, the term “drink-driving” is emotive.

Somehow, even driving while disqualified, uninsured, speeding or “taking a vehicle without permission”, doesn’t sound as shameful. I think the drink-driving laws have got it just about right. Haven’t responsible motorists and moderate drinkers taken enough battering recently?

The penalty for driving over the limit is already high and so it should be. Changes will not affect the hardcore who gamble on not getting caught. Mobile phone use alone is reported to cause more road accidents than alcohol. The time has come to take drastic action against people working from a knee-held computer on a motorway and other manifestations of information technology affecting driving. Curiously, there can’t be anything with more potential for disaster than lighting a cigarette while driving. Yet this is quite legal.