By Jo Best, 2 December 2003 12:45
NEWS With the ban on using a mobile phone while driving not even 24 hours old, the police have already nabbed several motorists who couldn't abandon their handsets whilst on the road.
The first to break the ban – just two hours after it came into force – is reported to be a 35-year old Scottish woman caught in Dundee, with at least six motorists feeling the wrath of police after being caught using mobile phones in their cars.
Although the ban on mobiles in cars came into force across the UK, English police forces have said that they are prepared to allow motorists a two-month period of grace to get used to the law. Scots police have said that they intend to crack down on wayward motorists from the very start of the ban.
Any driver found breaking the ban can expect a £30 on the spot fine, which could rise to £1,000 if the motorist takes the matter to court and loses – and as much as £2,500 if the driver happened to be in charge of a lorry, bus or coach.
One silicon.com reader from Plymouth thought that the ban had its place, but putting an end to mobiles wouldn't stop lorry drivers chatting whilst behind the wheel: "I can understand the reasoning behind not using a mobile whilst driving, but why not extend this to lorry drivers and their CB radios - surely the same rules should apply", he said.
The subject of the mobiles and driving has drawn strong opinion from silicon.com readers, with one anonymous reader from Hertfordshire claiming the motivation behind the ban was purely lining government coffers and that police time might be spent better elsewhere
"So now they're talking about upping the fine and giving three points out... great, they really are just trying to make money out of it and you can just imagine al the police eagerly watching out for offenders, instead of going after 'real criminals'....Let the crime fighters fight the real crimes," the reader said.
It was a sentiment echoed by a fellow anonymous reader from London, who called the ban simply "a total waste of time" saying that "we all know that there are lots of things that we do in the car that could distract us, but all this is still covered by driving without due care and attention laws... I am much safer talking into my phone than trying to control three unruly children in the car, but obviously children haven't been outlawed yet."
silicon.com readers Amanda Sutherland and Mike Taylor both separately voiced their concerns about smoking behind the wheel, suggesting that lighting up meant a lapse in concentration equivalent to that of taking a call on a handsfree phone.
A lone reader from Birmingham wrote in support of the ban and said: "I completely agree with the ban on holding a mobile phone to your ear in order to use it whilst driving". But they countered: "I would suggest that a complete ban is impossible to implement or enforce. Having a conversation with someone on a handsfree is the same as having a conversation with someone in the passenger seat, less distracting if anything as you are not going to be turning to look at the passenger. Are we going to ban conversations in the car?"
Is the ban on driving with mobiles a "total waste of time" or a useful way of cutting accidents on the roads? Let us know what you think in the Reader Comments section below.
Comments
There are 26 comments. Join the discussion
1. Mark Dempster
The use of hand-held mobile phones while driving definitely has a detrimental effect on driving ability - we simply don't have enough hands for that not to be the case. However, calls for an extension of the ban to cover hands-free phones is ludicrous - such a telephone conversation cannot be more distracting than talking to a passenger, for which I've heard no-one call for a ban.
Smoking, on the other hand, IS distracting; apart from the act of selecting & lighting a cigarette, there are regular hand-mouth-window actions which lessen control of the vehicle. And I think you'll find every motorclyclist has a tale to tell of discarded (but still lit) cigarette butts lading inside their helmet or clothing...
2. anonymous
I agree that a handsfree kit is a good idea for safety....what about making it illegal to smoke whilst driving unless using a handsfree kit. Any inventors out there who can invent a handsfree kit that holds the fag at mouth level for drivers would make a fortune. Better still, one that actually lights it at the same time would keep driver's eyes on the road whilst lighting up instead of concentrating on taking fag out of packet, picking up lighter and taking eyes off road whilst perfectly aligning flame to tip of fag! Has any research been done into how many smokers have accidents whilst smoking? That would be interesting. Also smokers flicking ash out of their windows also takes one hand off the wheel!
I agree that a passenger is more distracting than a mobile. How many accidents happen with passengers? How about putting a ban on mother-in-laws who are probably the most distracting passengers of all. Let's ban mother-in-law passengers. Where will this end? Would appreciate comments.
3. Philip Bird
HELP. I use a Bluetooth headset, I press the button on the headset to receive calls, I press the same button to make calls using voice recognition. Hence I never need to touch my mobile phone itself to make or receive calls. It ususlly sits on the seat next to me but could be in the glove box. It is not in a craddle. So ... am I breaking the law?
4. Henry
I fully support this ban - driving while using a mobile has been proven to be a cause of accidents which may kill or maim innocent people. It is quite right that it should be treated as a criminal act.
5. Paul Jordan
I do drive a car but I also cycle to work. The interior of a car with it warmth, a/c, radio CD etc. make the occupants feel removed from the real environment in which they are moving. Use of mobiles exacerbates this still further.
I support this measure as it should make it less likely for me to be knocked from my cycle by a driver who is paying less than full attention. - and I have seen plenty of examples of that.
6. Dave Roberts
The new ban cannot be about safety. If it had been then it would have included hands-free sets too.
Detection for a fixed penalty fine was the key to that decision. Make it easier to detect and easy to charge the penalty.
In my view there is no point in a ban that does not include all forms of communication (cb and other radio, hand held and hands free mobiles, text, email and so on). The only exception should be the emergency services.
7. anonymous
Having watched a 406 coupe wander between lanes, go from the middle lane to the inside lane, and then the off-ramp at busy Junction 8/9 on the M4 this morning, all without any signals - cause: because he had a phone to his right hear (held with the left hand - work that one out!)I think the ban is fully justified.
Why add to distractions in the car? Safety is more important than convenience - all the bleaters who talk about fund raising are missing the point - the fines are a deterent not a fund raising exercise.
8. anonymous
The latest camera technology can be trained to highlight people holding a phone to their ear. This means that the law will be enforceable without the use of police on the roads. This is almost certainly one of the motivating factors behind the law as it stands.
My own issue is that the inclusion of points on the licence and the subsequent threat to a persons livelihood represent an unbalanced punishment to the nature of the crime.
While I agree with the hard-liners that there is no excuse for failing to drive safely, people habitually do, several times each journey, not only with mobiles:- therefore the question of whether or not they should lose their licence (or contribute to its loss) is about singling out specific activities because they are fashionable and cheap to enforce.
9. Lee Clark
If having a conversation with someone on a hands free kit is not allowed, then what about all of these common distractions?
Fumbling to find a radio station that plays music during rush hour, and not the rantings of an over-enthusiastic DJ....
Shouting at the courier that has just clipped your wing mirror...
Singing the rest of the song that has just been talked over by an over-enthusiastic radio DJ...
Tending to 3 school children in the back of the car, when they should be on the school bus with the other children, and not in "daddy's 4x4"...
My point is that if we're not careful, we are going to be in a situation where we will be paying more fines on the road than we do in tax through our wages, to fill the pockets of a Government that is already taking too much.
Let's swap our mobiles for carrier pigeons, so they can invent new fines. How about a £30 on the spot fine for not scooping the poop?
10. anonymous
I couldn't count the number of times I've been cut up by a driver using a mobile, or got stuck behind one driving very slowly.
I don't remember ever noticing an unruly child or an attempt to light a cigarette as a cause, though I admit it might be more difficult to spot.
I must admit, I have, on rare occasions, used the mobile in the car, and it is MUCH more distracting than talking to a passenger.
I support the ban.
11. anonymous
I totaly suport this ban. All the arguments people have produced against it are like the whining of children. To all those who say that talking to a passenger/having children in the car/smoking etc are just as bad I would say that those things do not prevent the driver from using one arm. It is possible to change gear/have both hands on the wheel for most of the time when doing any of these things, but not when using a mobile. Yes, phone use could be covered by the existing care & attention laws but so what. This was a specific problem that is worth making a point about.
12. Graham Cole
As a friend of someone who has been seriously injured by a car whose driver was talking on his mobile instead of concentrating on the road, I fully support the new legislature. I eagerly await peoples comprehension that when a driver is distracted and takes his/her mind of the roadm the car is then not just a means for travelling from A to B, it becomes a potentially lethal missle.
13. John Foster
For heaven's sake people, talking on a mobile phone whilst driving is NOT a crime. Driving without due care and attention IS and is the real cause of accidents. We had accidents before the mobile was invented. Why outlaw all potential causes of crime? Why not simply impose an additional tariff when a crime is committed? We should be focussing our resources on catching real criminals.
14. anonymous
The justification of this ban, seems to be that it could save approximately 10 lives per annum.
Anyone who voices that it is unnecsessary legislation seems to get shot down with this fact.
Therefore, should we expect legislation banning smoking, drinking, being obese, horse riding, rock climbing, scuba diving, cycling, riding motorbikes etc.. etc... All of which cause many more deaths than using mobiles whilst driving.
This is just another tax. If the authorities were really trying to save lives, there are plenty of better ways to do it.
15. John S Thomas
I'm delighted to hear the UK has put an anti-mobile-phone law into effect.
Now maybe it's a matter of time before the troglodytes in my country (USA) get the idea.
16. Paul Walton
It is all about safety you cannot hold the phone and drive. This id emonstrated all across the UK every day.
If you can afford a phone and the call charges and run a car and the vast amount of tax we pay on fuel then you can afford a hands fee kit. Or turn it off.
17. anonymous
What we need are "brain free' devices, not "hands free" ones!
It is the dramatic decrease in a person's concentration levels when they are on the phone that is the issue, not the fact that their dexterity is reduced.
Although driving down the road looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame with your phone clasped between your ear and your should does not do much to your street credibility, the real problem is that during that time you are only partly concentating on your driving. And let's face it, some people's driving is bad enough even when they ARE concentrating!
18. anonymous
I thoroughly agree with the ban on using mobile phones whilst driving.
However, it appears that the Police are immune? Surely using their hand-held microphones to answer their personal radios whilst engaged in a high-speed pursuit should also be made illegal.
I have just witnessed at police car travelling in excess of 60mph in 30mph area, admittedly with “blues and two’s” going, but also using his radio with one hand and driving with the other. Personally, I consider this type of usage even a greater risk than using a mobile telephone.
Perhaps someone could clarify if using a radio microphone is any less dangerous and covered by the same law as a mobile telephone.
19. Rupert
We need this in the US. Most people have a hard time driving anyway. Put a phone to their ear and you have a recipe for death. They don't use signals, they forget where they are and cut others off trying to get to the exit they missed. Besides what is it they need to talk about that couldn’t wait till you get to your destination.
I've used a two way for over 15 years and it can be done safely if you care, most don't. Maybe a license to drive with a cell phone after annual training and testing would work.
As it is now it’s a cell’s in a vehicle are a hazard.
20. Robert Le Batisseur
Good idea to ban hand-held phones in cars. Also suggest (while they are on a roll) banning cigarettes (distracting), children (very distracting), my mother (won't stop talking), fat people (can't turn the steering wheel properly), old people (can't see the road or hear any warnings), all the car displays (you aren't looking at the road while you are checking your speed) and probably the car itself (big dangerous chunk of metal travelling at speeds more than 4 m.p.h)... oh, and the Government (a legalised for of extortion), speed cameras (ditto) etc.etc. Nanny state or what!!!
21. Brian Lawrence
Control of a vehicle is paramount to avoiding accidents. Two hands on the wheel gives the driver a better chance of crash avoidence in all weather, but particularly in the wet. Technology has now made handsfree units acceptable and should provide troublefree conversations on the move.
Even the handsfree of the earl '90s an better than todays fiddly handson phones! Well lets get on with it and fight any extra moves to ban these essential communicators! Hope you agree?
22. Richard Gaines
We seem to have the usual government flouting of practical popular democracy here. Most of us choose to drive faster than the regualtion 70 mph on our motorways, an expression of popular will that our beloved police force are pretty ineffective at preventing. So it is with the mobile phone - after the initial 'scare' most people will no doubt continue to use them, safe in the knowledge that with basic vigilance the police will only succeed in fining a tiny minority of users. No doubt they'll have the odd safety mophone van parked with cameras whirring!
23. anonymous
Re: Mobile phones while driving. Having been nearly marmalised on a number of occasions by drivers in damn great lorries using the phone, and being unwilling to invest in a phone with a camera without some means of payback, how about a reward system. Offenders could be captured 'on camera' as it were by concerned citizens who could then email the evidence to old bill. The noble citizen could then get a cut of the fine as a reward, and the cost of the phone paid back pdq.
24. anonymous
Mobile phones are distracting - and not just when driving. It must be the conversation by phone which distracts - I just saw someone nearly kill themselves by walking out into traffic at a busy junction whilst concentrating on the phone call. The usual scenario, the rush hour crowd walking at a pace along a crowded pavement - we all stopped at the "red man" but not the guy with the phone - screeeech..........
25. anonymous
I am not up with the details of the ban on mobile phones in cars, vans, etc but what is wrong with spending a few pounds to have hands free. I understand that this is OK So what's the problem?
26. anonymous
Off with their heads, its common sence to make driving safer the whingers that complain about both cameras and phones should have points against then for complaining. driving to the law requires skill, somthing sadly lacking with some UK motorist.
Ifeel sick that some twit on a mobile can put my life at risk,and thats what its all about.