A day-long crack down on motorists using mobile phones while driving has led to eleven people being fined by police in the Lancaster area.
Road policing officers carried out the clamp down on mobile phone use as part of Operation Pathway, an ongoing force wide campaign that sees high profile action days being carried out with the aim of saving lives and protecting people on the county’s roads.
“It’s scientifically proven that reaction time is greatly reduced when you are using a mobile phone while driving,” commented Sgt Nigel Ralphson of road policing. “Reaction time is slowed by 30 per cent on average – which is greater than someone slightly over the drink drive limit.
“We also see many drivers reading texts or texting and they can drive several metres without looking at the road ahead. The dangers of this are obvious.”
The 11 motorists were given £60 fines and three points on their licences.
Motoring laws can also see offenders taken to court, if, perhaps, a policeman thinks the offence so bad that a fixed penalty fine is inadequate, or because the driver refuses to accept the fixed penalty. If this happens, fines will almost certainly be larger and disqualification is possible: the maximum fine in a court is £1000, or £2500 if the driver is driving a bus or a goods vehicle.
The AA estimates that, despite the potential penalties for using your mobile while driving, if there are 10 million cars on the road at any time during the day and the government says one per cent of drivers are at the wheel holding a phone, then one hundred thousand drivers are breaking the law at that moment.
Commenting on mobile phone use back in February, a spokesperson for the company said motorists need to understand the dangers and consequences of misusing a mobile phone whilst driving.
“The ultimate danger is death and consequences can be anything from jail, penalty points to a driving ban and higher insurance premiums.”
• It’s not just car drivers who seem blind to the dangers of mobile phone use while you’re supposed to be concentrating on something else. Research carried out in the US at Western Washington University, published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, suggests people chatting on mobile phones are oblivious to their surroundings and can pose a risk to themselves and others.
This research found that people who used a mobile phone while walking were less likely to notice their surroundings than people using an MP3 player, walking with a companion or walking alone. (See news story here on NHS Choices)