Mobile Phones In The Car
It is estimated that this year, 2016, the number of smart phones in the UK will be around 42 million units. The number of mobile phones as a whole, collectively over the years, is in untold millions.
The number of people in the UK with driving licenses is around 35 million. Interesting statistics could be drawn from the number of calls, texts, emails, likes, tweets or such, in a twenty-four hour period, divided by the number of driver hours in the same period, and subtract the number of hands-free units.
An impossible task, probably, but what it highlights in a way, is the likely hood of someone using a phone whilst driving is not only positive, but proportional to the number of drivers. That is to say, how many people are, right now, driving and using a mobile device, answer, plenty.
The deterrent for doing so, up until now has been reckoned to be sufficient, but in the wake of several high profile, tragic, and fatal accidents involving using a mobile whilst driving, the Transport secretary has proposed a very strong deterrent indeed.
The current penalty for being caught using a mobile whilst in charge of a motor vehicle, is an endorsement of three penalty points on the license, and a fine of £100. This is similar to a basic speeding offence, driving a red light, or simple driving without due care and attention.
The proposal is to double the penalty, double the fine and double the points, meaning drivers will face getting six points on the license, and a fine of £200. This means that being caught using a phone again within the three year “life-span” of the offence, will result in twelve points on the license which could see drivers going to court and facing a six month driving disqualification, plus a £1,000 fine.
This would also mean that drivers who have recently passed the test (within the preceding two years), on receiving six penalty points lose the license completely and after the disqualification period of six months, have to re-apply and re-pass both sections of their driving test again…. with good representation you can avoid a disqualification and the UK’s leading experts at succeeding in this regard are www.pattersonlaw.co.uk specialist using a mobile phone whilst driving offence lawyers who only defend motorists.
The message that the Government is trying to get out is that, to change people’s conception of mobile phones and driving. Policing the use of phones is notoriously difficult, and in trying to get attitudes changed, making the use of phones as anti-social as drink-driving has become their focus.
Should the onus be put on the driver, or on the technical possibilities of phone and motor manufacturers to make it impossible to use a hand held device whilst behind the wheel?
This approach remains rhetorical at the moment, at the moment the big stick treatment looks most likely.