More mobile phone use behind the wheel – but prosecutions for it are down

What is the point of increasing penalties when the chances of getting caught are about the same as a snowball in hell?

Lets not kid ourselves - nothing is going to change until there is a comprehensive education campaign to change social attitudes and active Police enforcement - the occasional Police "blitz" will do nothing to change driver behaviour.

You have a much higher risk of receiving a parking ticket or speeding ticket from an automatic camera, than being caught using a hand held celluar device or tablet? 

Motorists have realised this, and routinely ignore the law with deadly consequences for anyone outside of the vehicle.  If you use cycle lanes you will often see vehicles turning across oncoming cyclists and will often see the driver clutching a phone to their head, especially with the private hire drivers. 

Socially? It does seem unacceptable, based on my daily observations on the large number of motorists using hand hell devices whilst driving in London. 

I rode home tonight at 7pm across London and saw a huge number of drivers clutching / tapping away / making calls on hand held devices; sitting above the height of the driver cabin on a bicycle lets you see very clearly, at a glance, what the motorist is doing. 

With a bright secondary light mounted on my helmet, I saw a number of motorists quickly fumble their phones to hide them, perhaps assuming I was Police.  

Will anything change with Police cutbacks looming? Very doubtful...

Bigger fines etc aren't really the answer, like drink-driving it needs a social campaign and enforcement that will change behaviour.

Mobile phone use is considered much like speeding; so many people do it, journos and libertarians have whined on about it so much (esp. Gatsos) that there is a widespread feeling that it's not a real law. In some of the 30mph roads in Shrewsbury I'd estimate that nearly half of the drivers are doing at least 40mph (when they're not stuck in a queueing. Suckers). Even my thoroughly decent, unflinchingly honest parents both felt that being caught doing 38mph along a street in Bangor wasn't fair.

If this attitude is so ingrained how  can we expect hamstrung, poorly resourced traffic cops to turn the situation around?

@ Simmo72, could you have avoided the oil if you weren't gawping at your gadget? At least you didn't mindlessly aim 2 tonnes of steel at another person at 35mph.

So working for myself, most days I'm lucky enough to work form home.  Around about 4pm I'll usually have to take a short walk up the road to drop off the days post.

During the summer I got into a habit of counting the number drivers looking at their phones as I walked back, over a distance of about 200m on the main road.  Lowest count was 5, highest was 20.

There's always masses of schoolkids around as well at that time of day, getting on buses and using the shops.  Zero chance of the Police doing anything about it.  They did however have the resources to deploy a safer neighbourhood team to educate cyclists about riding on the pavement.

Can someone remind me what's the form these days on intervening when you witness a crime being committed?
If you see a shoplifter, do you stop them? Someone vandalising property? Do you intervene in an assault? A mugging? 
What about someone driving on the pavement? Driving while on the phone.

Why do I imagine that somehow you'll be hailed a have-a-go hero for all the first-mentioned crimes and be labelled an interfering zealot for the motoring crimes.

the fine is not an issue, you can declare that driving on the phone is a capital offence, but unless you catch those breaking the law there really is no point! 

There is really no option but to increase road policing in the UK.  

Fuck the law. It's useless and redundant.

What we should be able to do is contact insurers who would in turn raise the feckers premiums or refuse to insure. To tackle uninsured drivers we need bounty hunters. They see an unisured car they can seize it and sell or crush it along with the phone toting driver. 

All vehicles should be on one public database indicating whether they are insured and by which insurer, whether they are taxed and have MOT with expiry dates.

If you see a moton driving with a phone glued to their ear you could call a bounty hunter who would be there in minutes to impound and hopefully crush the car, driver and phone.

In the meantime if the car is stationary you could bang on the roof as it scares the shit out of motons who are driving and dialing.

I think the law must state that use of a handheld mobile while driving is compulsory in South London. It's the only explanation.

This is easy money for someone. I'd happily film and report drivers using mobile devices for 50% of the fine.

But seriously, why not give parking wardens and other sinister Agents of the State the ability to issue on the spot tickets?

About time the punishment was raised.  Media campaign to warn, then introduce immediate 1 month ban and £1000 fine.  That will deter many and make those caught think twice.  Also stick police on bikes and head cams, ride up along side traffic in rush hour and record them.  I don't care if they lose there job or have some trouble getting to work, tough.  There is a reason.

Of course that requries a law to be changed which seems to take forever and an adequately resourced police force...neither likely under this government.

Next task; fine cyclists who do the same.

9 points and £800? I like that idea. Harsher penalties enforced are the only solution now  

Waiting at a pedestrian crossing yesterday, a young driver came past, looking down at her phone, and therefore not looking where she was going. It's appalling driving, but it happens all the time, and there are never any police, so there's virtually no chance of her or anyone else being caught.

I would say driving and messing around with a smartphone is now reaching epidemic proportions, but so far there is no action from government or the police.

Like many, i'm primarily a cyclist and then an occasional driver. I cycle my kids to school and nursery 4 days a week and every day in South West London I encounter dreadful standards upon the road. The 2 user groups that accidentally and deliberately intimidate us are car and van drivers.

Yesterday approaching a set of  red lights to turn right, we're 1st, a van behind honks his horn, I have a child on my bike and a 6 yo on his, i ignore until we're in the advance box.  As i turn round to see what's up he's already honking again and shouting for us to get out of his way, it's still red... All the while on his f%@king phone. I gestured 'mobile' at him and he went apoplectic. I pointed at my kids, didn't get any empathic reaction. I am increasingly seeing the only solution as vigilante action, these people, stastically, are killers.

What does the police, local/national government do? Nothing. It's outrageous, vulnerable pedestrians, cyclists and other road users need protection, easily done by rigerous enforcement of more punative sanctions.

Quote:

The goal for ministers and policy-makers is surely to make the use of mobile phones at the wheel as socially unacceptable as drink-driving,

So hand down the same punishments.

There's zero excuse for using the phone at the steering wheel. With the current penalty of 3 points, you can get caught four times before you lose your licence (which you'll probably get back if you appeal). It's beyond a joke - that's not an incentive to stop. The chances of getting caught are slim, so even if you drove around using the phone at the wheel for an hour every day, by the time you'd been caught four times your first lot of points will have already expired.

Make it 9 points, and a £800 fine. Why this still isn't resolved is beyond me - it's no secret that mobile phone use at the wheel is prolofic and dangerous. So far all lip service.

no traffic police, is this really a surprise? 

examples, I only parked on double yellow for a minute, i was just dropping X off, the road was quiet, good visability,  etc etc etc. far too easy to make excuses. Far too little chance of getting caught.