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Drivers face new phone penalties

Driver using mobile phone
There is a 'groundswell' of support for fines, ministers say.
Motorists who are caught using a hand-held mobile phone while driving will have three penalty points added to their licence, the government says.

Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander said the maximum fine would also double to £60 from 27 February.

He added that it was "impossible to do two things at once" and that using a mobile while driving was dangerous.

But the Liberal Democrats say only about one in 100 offenders are being caught by police.

'Concentration'

Mr Alexander said: "Research shows that talking on a mobile phone while driving affects your concentration and ability to react to dangerous situations.

"It's quite simple - it's impossible to do two things at once and do them well.

"That is why in December 2003 we introduced new laws preventing motorists from driving while using a hand-held mobile.

"We have seen a groundswell of support for this move.

"But, worryingly, while 92% of people agree with the law, 21% of drivers admit to breaking it."

Shadow Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "This is a perfectly sensible change and we support it.

"But the trouble with changes like this coming from ministers in ivory towers is that they have left our roads to be policed by speed cameras rather than
real traffic officers - and so people will carry on getting away with offences like this."

Home Office figures for 2004 show that nearly 74,000 fixed-penalty notices were issued in England and Wales for illegal use of a mobile phone while driving.

A Liberal Democrat study last year suggested this meant only 1.1% of those who admitted to the offence were being caught.

The party combined the Home Office figures and an insurance firm's survey on driving habits to calculate that 6.7m people use mobiles while behind the wheel.

If the police or the driver choose to take a case to court rather than use a fixed-penalty notice, the maximum fine is £1,000, or £2,500 for drivers of
vans, lorries, buses and coaches.

In a lot of areas traffic Police are being replaced by Highways Officers. In fact some counties haven't had ,certainly on motorways ,Traffic Police for some time.

I do wonder how many people realise that it's been an offence since the end of 2003. Most people on seeing a Police uniform will apply a seat-belt if they aren't wearing one but 99% carry on talking on their phone.

If the resources had been made available say in early 2004 to have a nationwide crack down of the illegal use of handheld phones to hammer the message home the results would have read a lot better and without doubt if it had reduced the number of them being used in this way it would have saved lives. But as we hear all the time on the news most forces are having to cutback and reduce the number of regular Police officers. Northamptonshire are replacing officers that leave with PCSOs which on basic pay saves them over £10K per year per officer ,according to online figures, compared to an experienced officer.