By Will Sturgeon, 4 October 2005 12:00
NEWS Drivers in the UK are still flouting the ban on driving while using a mobile phone handset - and the Department for Transport (DfT) is urging them to consider the danger to others and to themselves.
Although it's a message which has failed to sink in so far, Stephen Ladyman, road safety minister, insists the practice leads to a four-fold increase in the risk of an accident.
Ladyman said: "Using a mobile phone while you're driving makes you four times more likely to have an accident, and it's a shame that a small minority of drivers are still using their hand-held phones."
But many drivers still seem intent on valuing their social lives above the lives of others. A study by the DfT found 1.5 per cent of car drivers were spotted talking on their mobiles and for lorry drivers the figure was higher at 2.4 per cent.
Ladyman said: "Missing a call won't kill you but a road accident might. I urge people to switch off their phones while they're driving to make the roads safer for us all. The police are on the road looking out for drivers using phones and they do prosecute those they catch."
The Road Safety Bill, which is currently going through parliament, will mean motorists spotted using a mobile phone behind the wheel will get a £60 fine and three points on their licence.
However, the DfT today also revealed worrying figures regarding driver apathy towards basic safety information. The study found that seven per cent of drivers still fail to wear a seat belt, while six per cent of front seat passengers also eschew the safety belt.
Comments
There are 38 comments. Join the discussion
1. Jon Pennycook
Mobile phone use while driving is as bad as alcohol according to the Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel.
2. Pete Blanchard
Strange, the way people drive around here in SE Essex, I thought thought it was illegal NOT to be chatting on a mobile phone whilst driving . . .
3. Joe Public
4 times more likely? than what?
So how likely does he predict it is that you will have an accident every time you get in your car?
Ive been driving for 10 years and had no accidents, so is my ratio 0% chance? and if so, being 4 times more likely that would also give me 0% chance of an accident?
"4 times more likely" does not represent anything without the comparison. Whats the point of saying that? It just makes him sound like an idiot and discredits his information.
Why is it they also assume that everyone who answers a phone whilst driving is a wreckless mindless baffoon? If you answer your phone whilst driving, do you not concentrate harder as you are aware that you are on the phone? When just driving normally, to and from work every day, don't most of us drive in a kind of "auto-pilot"?? how high is our concentration level at 8am every morning and how likely would we be to notice a car suddenly breaking in front of us at this time? I bet if i was on the phone, my eyes would be more glued to what is happening in front of me as my awareness is lifted.
Knowone wants to die, the assumption that people just turn off mindlessly just because they answer a phone is naive!
4. Simon Mallett
Considering I personally see 3 or 4 people a day doing this and I'm on the road for maybe an hour a day. That means I see about 120 a month. If I was driving for 12 hours a day I would see 1,440.
The conviction rate in Kent is way below that. Clearly it is not being enforced. Considering the fines available, it would pay the police to have a couple of unmarked cars targetting mobile phone use!
5. Dave Roberts
Whatever they do drivers will ignore the ban. For me, the partial ban that was implemented made the whole thing a complete nonsense. Hands free is just as dangerous (maybe more so) than hand held - so why only ban half the problem?
And when you make obviously stupid laws then motorists are inclined to ignore them. (I don't use a phone while driving, but not because of the law, because of the risk).
6. anonymous
I think the 1.5% of car drivers seems low, I'm always seeing people talking on their phones while driving.
If using your phone is as bad as drink driving, lets hope you never meet a drink driver on their mobile. That must be really bad....
Personally I'd ban smoking while driving as well. Have you ever seen someone scrambling around with a cigarette while driving? Or the people who drive one handed as they have their cigarette hand out the window...
It must be as bad as using a mobile.
So if you see a drink driver, smoking a cigarette while on the mobile, pull over and let them crash into a wall instead of your car.
7. anonymous
When I was brought on board as the Product Manager for car kit installations at Vodafone in 2003, I said that the government's treatment of people caught driving and talking was too lenient. Since then Vodafone have dispensed with my services as the uptake of fitted car kits was not what they expected and some of my solutions were too radical for the organistion. Now it appears as if we are left in a situation where too little too late is being done again. I would suggest that Mr ladyman gets in touch with myself and hires me as a consultant in order for me to assist him in working out ways to enforce this law.
8. David Charlesworth
Quite simply we are all sick and tired of more and more legislation and laws.
Tell the Govenment to go to hell.
I seldom leave the Studio now. It is not safe for ordinary people to go out. (A line from the classic film Bladerunner - "If you are not Police, you are little people"!
9. Jim Price
How many drivers have actually been prosecuted for using a phone while driving? VERY, VERY few I suspect! I have just walked to the local Post Office and back, circa 15 minutes. I saw FIVE offenders - all of them Parcel Couriers, do their companies care for the safety of their drivers and other road users? Not likely, the only thing they are interested in is getting the parcels out five minutes earlier!
10. Bob Nicholas
When will these people ever learn. I have nearly been taken out twice by idiots talking on the phone whilst driving. The worst was the prat who turned left in front of me, as if entering a factory entrance, but then pulled round to the right to make a U turn. Presenting me with the drivers door and forcing me to make an emergency stop. The guy just looked at me as if to say..."Where the hell did you come from" Phone clamped to his ear...... Duh !!!
11. Mike Parker
There comes a time when perhaps people don't want to be looked after. We are in an age of being told what to do and not everyone is going to listen to authority. This goes for speeding too. If you chances of dieing increase the faster you go as you are told to believe, then I should be surely dead, as I have been in a vehicle travelling in excess of 140mph. Right or wrong, it contradicts the information we are given.
12. Bob Nicholas
When will these people ever learn. I have nearly been taken out twice by idiots talking on the phone whilst driving. The worst was the prat who turned left in front of me, as if entering a factory entrance, but then pulled round to the right to make a U turn. Presenting me with the drivers door and forcing me to make an emergency stop. The guy just looked at me as if to say..."Where the hell did you come from" Phone clamped to his ear...... Duh !!!
13. Jari Kukkonen
Sweden is the only nation that bases its actions on knowledge on this matter. They made an actual research on the use of mobile handset while driving and found out that it was just as dangerous as using a handsfree or talking with another person in the same car, but not as dangerous as smoking or changing channels on the radio. Because of that there is no ban in Sweden. All other nations have enforced this useless and harmfull law. Only one that benefits from it is the media that now has something to write about.
14. Glen Whelan
From a motorcyclists point of view, these people who use mobile phones in their cars without handsfree devices are potential killers, as they are unable to concentrate on the road, and I feel the fines should be adjusted to reflect this.
If you raised the fine to £1000 per offence you would soon see an effect; £60 is not a sufficient deterrent these days.
How much are these hands free devices, £40-50?
15. anonymous
I drive @30,000 mils per year and every day I see drivers using mobile phones. This law cannot be enforced.
16. Roger Huffadine
Stephen Ladyman in common with many ministers has no concept of statistics and as ever makes a fool of himself by engaging his mouth before his brain.
If you stand in one place and observe a 'small' percentage [say 2.4%] of drivers using their mobiles whist driving it doesn't mean that only a small percentage of all drivers use their phones whilst driving.
My observations lead me to believe that of all drivers who have a mobile switched on [and not fixed to the vehicle] whilst driving over 95% will answer an incoming call.
The problem with this law is that, along with many others, it was drafted in haste for purely political reasons and is almost impossible to enforce with the current lack of police resources.
However, I could easily build a device for the DfT which would detect and photograph drivers who abuse the law. The system would also automatically issue the fine and inform the driver's insurance company.
So if Stephen or anyone from the DfT reads this - I'm happy to enlarge the automated Police State that this government seems intent on fabricating.
17. martyn
As this bunch of chancers has managed to reverse a long term improvement in the number of fatalities on our roads perhaps they might take time to consider whether they are talking out of their mouths or elsewhere when they discuss road safety.
18. Steven Wiggins
We can all envisage situations when using a non "hands free" mobile would be hazardous and other occasions when it would not be. The problem is that government, particularly this government full of lawyers, see legislation as the answer to every problem. The person in charge of the vehicle at the time is in the best position to judge the circumstances. I believe this applies within reason, to speed as well. There are good drivers and bad drivers and accidents will always happen but before we get paranoid, consider that the number of people killed on our roads today is less than half the number killed 50 years ago, despite the massive increase in traffic. Wouldn't it be superb if the government and police could say the same about murder, robbery, burglary and other crime that so blights our lives. Let's see a change in policing priority. Hit the criminals don't hound decent citizens!
19. anonymous
Glad to know Joe Public values the lives of others so highly. However much you *think* you are in control on the road, there is always room for better concentration and control, room that is depleted by chatting on any kind of mobile, and particulary a hands-free mobile. When I see people doing this it just makes me livid.
20. Michael Foggin
Thankyou David Charlesworth for your useful contribution to the debate. Whilst you may not be at huge risk from these idiots in your studio, you are whenever you're crossing the road.
You say "Quite simply we are all sick and tired of more and more legislation and laws. Tell the Govenment to go to hell. " well whoopy-do; that'll help.
I spend upward of four hours a day commuting and quite frankly I'd welcome the sort of legislation that protects people, as do most people.
People openly flouting the law should be punished and fined appropriately. I'm sick to death of people whinging that the 'nanny state' interferes with their 'right' to do whatever they want to do regardless of the consequence to themselves and others.
I'd like to see the police nicking mobile users on roads in the same way they nick people for speeding. They won't get everyone but it will be a start,
21. Charles Smith
You will find that drivers who use hand held mobile phones whilst driving ignore other safety laws as well. Typically speeding and driving without due care and consideration.
The only way to bring the message home (handsfree of course) is to ban drivers for six months if caught using a hand held mobile whilst driving. Very few calls are that urgent anyway. A few pounds spend on a decent hands free kit does not cost very much.
22. CPK Smithies
We already have a perfectly good law against dangerous driving.
Police, ambulance and taxi drivers commonly use handheld radios.
So what if 4 times more accident drivers were on their mobile phone at the time? Does that prove that the phone was to blame? Perhaps wearing black socks makes it 8 times more likely.
If hands-free kit does make a difference - and it seems research shows that it doesn't - then what about driving an automatic? Does that affect how dangerous it is?
If people aren't deterred by the risk of an accident, why should they be deterred by the risk of a legal penalty? How would increasing the penalty help?
Perhaps someone should do research to see whether people deliberately flout laws that are seen as irrational. On the psychological level, people are more likely to behave responsibly if you appeal to their sense of responsibility rather than threatening them with penalties.
23. anonymous
Maybe the solution is that the Government drop these silly laws and just let people get on with their lives, after all if youre scared of the dangers on the road you can always stay at home! No-one FORCES you to go out on the roads after all!
Too many restrictions mean that the deterrency gets devalued because people just cant be bothered by it all anymore. Daily we see stupid driving by people not using their phones but there is no law against being an inconsiderate and aggressive driver or if there is we never see it enforced until someone is actually killed.
Let us take a leaf out of Sweden's book and scrap these stupid nanny state restrictions.
24. anonymous
All of you who have had near misses with people using mobiles whilst driving ask yourself a question, how many near misses have you had with people not using mobiles at the time?
I find the answer is more near misses with people not using mobiles.
Perhaps the near miss is down to the other person's bad driving in general.
What about other in car devices, like radio's cigarette lighters and the latest craze of Sat Nav (for people to stupid and useless to be able to use a map or route finder and follow a route on paper and don't know how to drive). Surly a dog on your lap is worse than using a mobile (this is one i see regularly).
25. anonymous
David Charlesworth says 'Quite simply we are all sick and tired of more and more legislation and laws'. I would add 'that are not enforced, mainly because they are unenforceable.' This brings the whole process of law into disrepute and therefore people feel free to break the law willy-nilly.
I admit that a police officer may be well justified in his reluctance to stop an errant motorist in the third lane of a busy motorway (because of the danger caused to other road users) but surely a few strategically placed officers on urban roads followed by a few high profile prosecutions of drivers for using mobile phones whilst driving would quickly get the message across?
Incidentally, I feel that pedestrians using a mobile phone whilst crossing the road are just as much a danger, at least to themselves!
26. anonymous
I live in salisbury. any day of the week you can stand by the side of the road and 1 in 3 cars will have the driver on their mobile.
27. Brian Nesbit
I drive from Rugby to Slough via the A5, A43, M40, A404 and M4 and I see plenty of drivers with mobile phones to their ear. Most of the drivers are travelling at over 80mph on the motorways and on the A43 they even negotiate the many roundabouts with their mobiles attached to their ears. On Monday this week there was a young lady travelling at 80 mph on the M40 near High Wycombe with a phone to her ear and in the other hand she was doing her lipstick, how she was steering her vehicle is a mystery to me. With dangerous driving we have the laws/penalties in place to punish but there is still little or no enforcement and you very rarely see a police car on the motorways today, or perhaps they are all undercover? I believe 12 months of zero tolerance fines on the spot, or report you back to the magistrate’s court where the offence was committed for sentencing, at your expense, will sort the problem out very quickly.
28. Steve
I don't understand how some people have tens of thousands of pounds for a car but can't find a hundred for a speakerphone!
29. Paul
Madness! Any distraction is going to make driving less safe and talk to someone on the 'phone is far worse than to a passenger (who may also be interested in staying alive...) Using a 'phone takes a large amount of attention - try navigating while have a 'phone conversation (legally of course!)
30. Bryan Scott
Have you noticed how many responses there are in proportion to other subjects, when there appears an item which appears to comment adversly, or even criticise, upon those preceived rights for drivers to do almost anything.
31. Joe Public
What’s the difference between an idiot driving and an idiot driving with a phone to their ear? = nothing.
People are always describing "near misses" with idiots driving whilst on the phone. All people see is the phone, which gets all the blame. They forget that there's an idiot attached to the phone and don’t realize that this person was an idiot before they put there phone to their ear.
The "near miss" would have likely happened whether this person was on the phone or not.
This is not evidence to suggest that driving with a phone to your ear is dangerous.
I agree with the comment above regarding Sweden. The only times my concentration has dropped enough to nearly crash is when I have been fiddling with the stereo or lighting a cigarette.
It stands to reason, the most important sense whilst driving is vision. What detracts from your vision the most?
1. Grabbing a mobile with one hand (we all instinctively no where our answer button is on our mobiles so we don’t need to stare at the screen)
2. Lighting a cigarette (couple of seconds vision taken by flame)
3. Adjusting the volume/searching for radio station on car stereo (couple of second’s attention and (often) leaning forward moving head away from direct line of vision and away from mirrors.
Its not rocket science is it?
Please all you "do-gooders" take off your tunnel vision glasses and think a bit liberally! Honestly, our government doesn’t always have our best interests at heart!
32. anonymous
They would be enforced if they had a camera that would pick them up. Seems that if it is not on a camera then nothing gets done.
33. John Caplan
If DR from Warwickshire is such an insecure driver that he won't even consider using a hands-free phone while driving then I would suggest he starts using public transport!
I used to drive to and from the office regularly and always made many phone calls because it's a productive use of otherwise "dead" time.
Another contributor made the comment that people commuting tend to drive on "auto pilot" anyway and using the phone while driving makes you more aware.
I agree with him.
DR get a bus - it will obviously be safer for all of us!
34. Sue Stockdale
I would have thought the most dangerous thing would be SMOKING whilst driving ... how many people do you see smoking whilst driving, compared to using a mobile? Nobody died from dropping a mobile, but a cigarette .... or is it just cynical of me to be thinking of the tobacco revenue the Government receives???
35. anonymous
In response to Joe Public...
Yet another good reason NOT to visit Coventry.....
Turn the phone off - what is that important that it is worth killing yourself over?
36. Joe Public
In response to “anonymous”- Yet another example of a mind numbing, tunnel visioned response! Did you even read what the main argument is here or are you just blatantly ignoring it? The point it YES its OBVIOUS driving while on the phone is MORE dangerous than being in complete control of your vehicle. Nobody puts their social life in front of their own safety! What some people do is put common sense in front of government red tape. And yes newsflash, there were already idiots out there on the road before mobiles were invented!
Yes it is MORE dangerous driving whilst on a mobile, but is it MORE dangerous than driving whilst having a cigarette or shouting at the kids in the back? Those with common sense say no its not. So why is smoking not banned whilst driving? Why is having young children in the back not banned? If “anonymous” is so concerned about driving whilst “conducting a diversionary activity” does he/she smoke? Speak to passengers or children? Adjust the Stereo? Or just about any other activity that can distract ones attention? Hmmmm.
I wonder how much the government makes out of the tobacco industry?
It’s easy just to make like a sheep and just blindly let the government tell you what’s right and wrong. It take’s a bit more of a person to think “why”.
(Please read and take in the above before posting “Joe Public thinks its ok to drive whilst on the mobile because it’s just as bad as having a cigarette”)
Get the point please.
37. Simon
This is a completely outrageous law. If they included metrics about the use then it might be acceptable. If you're hooning down a motorway at 70mph, or driving along roads that are open access to pedestrians (i.e. there are no barriers between the pavement and road) I could accept using a handset is dangerous. But if you're dawdling through heavy stop/start traffic at no more than 10mph then how is that dangerous?
38. anonymous
I ride my scooter every day into the centre of London, it's a journey of about 11 miles and every single day I see people driving (usually at speed, not sat in traffic) whilst on their mobiles - I've even seen idiots actually texting while driving! We need to get tough with these offenders. They may say that their attention is on driving the car and I'm sure it is, unfortunately their reactions are much slower - I know because I've seen it. While holding a mobile to their face how do they use the indicators or change gear? I've seen people swerve to avoid cyclists because they just can't put their mobile down - one woman was driving so slowly on a buy road while she was on her mobile and driving her 4x4 I overtook her, she then decided to turn right, I slowed down and asked her why she was on the phone and her answer was 'to mind my 'f'ing business' - a classy lady I'm sure you'll agree!
A £60 fine with 3 points will not do anything - how about a £600 fine and 6 points? That might do the trick.