Police crack down on drivers using mobile phones at wheel

Humberside Police had a crackdown on drivers who flout the law in May, but are repeating the campaign this month in a move to raise awareness of the dangers of using a phone while driving and cut casualties.

Research by the Transport Research Laboratory, which led to the ban on using hand-held phones while driving being introduced eight years ago, showed drivers’ reactions and responses were dramatically impaired when they drove using mobile phones – with a motorist suffering similar effects as a driver who had drunk twice the legal alcohol limit.

Despite the ban, there is also growing evidence, police say, to suggest the use of mobile phones is becoming a more common contributory factor in many serious collisions.

During May, June and July, 645 motorists were stopped in the Humberside Police area for driving while using a mobile phone.

Just under half chose to go on a Considerate Drivers course rather than go to court or receive a fixed penalty fine and penalty points.

Dr Nick Reed, a senior researcher from Transport Research Laboratory, said its studies had shown that hands-free phones were almost as bad a distraction as hand-held phones.

He said: “The results of our tests and many others tend to show that the level of distraction is about the same.

“It is generally slightly worse with a hand-held, but it is marginal.”

Media coverage following the ban’s introduction in 2003, and when sentencing was made more severe in 2007, had an impact on offending, but that crept back after a year or two – simply because people are so attached to their phones.

According to the most recent figures by the Office for National Statistics almost half of the UK’s internet users go online using their mobile phone.

Some 45 per cent of those surveyed said they accessed the web via their phones – almost 14 per cent higher than last year.

Dr Reed said: “We just have a very strong relationship with our phones.

“People are very tied to their phones.

“We are lucky in this country as accidents are relatively rare – you might use a phone 10 times and not have an accident, so the perception that a phone is safe to use is reinforced, when in fact you’ve been fortunate not to have one as the risk of having an accident is increased four-fold.”

Dr Reed believes stamping the problem out will be hard to achieve and it will be left to technological advances like safety features in cars that keep you in lane and cuts the speed of the vehicle when other traffic is slowing to provide the solution in the future.

Meanwhile, police in the area will be on the look out for drivers who do break the law.

Chief Inspector Darren Downs said: “Mobile phones in cars can have many benefits in that they provide security and help in the case of an emergency.

“However, they are also distracting and if used inappropriately and indeed illegally whilst driving, it considerably increases the risk of a collision.

“Research shows that a driver using a mobile phone is four times more likely to crash, causing injury or death to themselves or others and that is why it is an area we concentrate on policing.”

Anyone caught using a mobile phone could face an Endorseable Fixed Penalty Notice (EFPN) – costing £60 and three penalty points.

Or they may be offered the opportunity to attend the drivers’ course which costs £95 and is aim ed at educating drivers.

Police say in more serious cases it may be more appropriate to consider prosecution for careless or dangerous driving by way of summons.

Road safety advice leaflets will be handed out throughout the course of the campaign.

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