Police in England and Wales are cracking down on mobile phone use among drivers this week, the second such nationwide operation this year after 2,323 offences were spotted in a similar campaign in May.
A person is four times more likely to crash while using a mobile phone at the wheel, making it roughly as dangerous as drink driving, and yet in a 2016 RAC report 31 per cent of motorists admitting to using a phone at the wheel, an increase of four per cent since 2014. Last year the government announced it would double fines and points for using a mobile phone while driving.
While campaigners welcome the focus on mobile phone use they say more must be done year-round to tackle poor driving. A sharp fall in the number of drivers fined for mobile phone use was revealed last month as stretched police forces allocate fewer officers to road traffic offences.
Number of drivers fined for using mobile phone plummets
National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Roads Policing, Chief Constable Suzette Davenport, said: “Forces are coming together this week with innovative approaches to catching those driving when distracted and campaign to make drivers think twice about using their mobiles at the wheel.
“Tackling mobile phone use by drivers requires police enforcement using new technology and tactics to maximise the numbers of people we can stop, combined with strong effective penalties and creative national campaigns to make driving distracted as socially unacceptable as drink driving.
“When you’re getting in your car, remember don’t put others at risk – keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel.”
Operation tactics include dedicated patrols in unmarked vans, and using helmet cams to catch offenders; combined shifts with paramedics to educate people of the risks of using a phone at the wheel; use of message signs on commuter routes saying “leave your phone alone”; pilot schemes with community spotters to target repeat offenders and the use of social media videos and messages.
Last year the Department for Transport announced it would double fines and points for driving while using a mobile phone. From 2017 offenders will face a £200 fine and six licence points, while those whose licences are less than two years old will be disqualified.
We’re supporting @PoliceChiefs week of action targeting drivers who use mobile phone behind the wheel #noexcuse https://t.co/8ZB5kw1LxH pic.twitter.com/bPTcrSGYYh
— Essex Police (@EssexPoliceUK) November 14, 2016
Sam Jones, Cycling UK’s Campaigns and Communications Coordinator, said: “People should know driving with a mobile phone is dangerous and illegal. It is as bad as or worse than being over the drink driving limit. Public awareness campaigns like this one are making people aware of what the risks are, and that they could face fines, or points on their licences.
“The reason people do it is they don’t think they will be caught. We hope people will be afraid of being caught and will stop doing this incredibly dangerous activity.”
Jones said the issue appears to be rising up the political agenda after last week, at a trade delegation to India, Prime Minister, Theresa May, said mobile phone use at the wheel should be “as socially unacceptable as drink driving”.
While Jones welcomed the crackdown he said more specially trained officers are needed on the streets looking out for and tackling dangerous driving year-round.
The West Midlands Police pointed people to a blog about the dangers of using a mobile phone at the wheel.
As mobile phone use is the focus this week why not get someone you know who is an offender to read this https://t.co/FgiYLdlY59 #savealife
— CMPG – Road Policing (@Trafficwmp) November 14, 2016
Meanwhile, in Miami, one artist has turned a crushed car into a smiley emoji
Brilliant.
In Miami, artist Rudolf Kohn transformed a wrecked car
into an emoji to make a powerful statement against texting and driving pic.twitter.com/ws5mLvFZEW— michael jacobs (@michaeljaco) November 7, 2016
15 thoughts on “Police crack down on mobile phone driving”
A whole week? Why aren’t they
A whole week? Why aren’t they doing this all the time? It really isn’t rocket science to catch them. I get that it could be tedious to process them but unless and until there is proper enforcement behaviour will not change.
Man of Lard wrote:
Yup. As fas as I can tell, texting while driving is pretty much compulsory round here. A week is not enough.
Boy, the Police cocked up
Boy, the Police cocked up here.
Announce the crackdown AFTERWARDS….they will just be good for a week or so then go back to normal.
Plasterer’s Radio wrote:
My local paper advertises exactly where and when police speed camera cars are going to be stationed for the week ahead. We can’t just be trapping the poor beleaguered (lawbreaking) motorists, can we.
Hampshire police will be too
Hampshire police will be too busy stopping cyclists without lights in Portsmouth to deal with this trivial matter.
By ‘innovative approach’ do
By ‘innovative approach’ do they mean looking ?
“The reason people do it is
“The reason people do it is they don’t think they will be caught. We hope people will be afraid of being caught and will stop doing this incredibly dangerous activity.”
Not “We hope people will be afraid of seriously injuring or killing themselves and others”? It costs plenty of money for local authorites and police forces to put in laws and then act on them. They are done for a reason, not just to get people caught but actually to stop people dying. This is the big disconnect everyone has with driving offences – we only care about getting a fine/points, rather than understand that we are acting dangerously.
Did anyone see the 6.00 o
Did anyone see the 6.00 o’clock BBC news report on this? Ironic in that the reporter was talking to his camera, on his left hand side, whilst driving his car. I’ve complained.
I really think they need to
I really think they need to introduce an alternative to fines! I mean £200 is not much of a fine really. I would introduce instant 2 or 4 week driving bans – doesn’t matter how much you earn, public transport for a couple of weeks is enough to put anyone off from texting!
damo567 wrote:
They might cycle though,That would be like a reward.
damo567 wrote:
Agree with the licence revocation: it has to be hammered home that it is a privilege, not a right.
But I’d argue for progressive fines too, like in some other European countries. In Finland they have ‘day fines’ that are tied to your daily earnings; certain punishments attract penalties of n days. Their record fine for speeding? €100K+ to a Nokia executive.
£60 isn’t much of a deterrent, whereas a week’s wages might be.
davel wrote:
I really think they need to introduce an alternative to fines! I mean £200 is not much of a fine really. I would introduce instant 2 or 4 week driving bans – doesn’t matter how much you earn, public transport for a couple of weeks is enough to put anyone off from texting!
— davel Agree with the licence revocation: it has to be hammered home that it is a privilege, not a right. But I’d argue for progressive fines too, like in some other European countries. In Finland they have ‘day fines’ that are tied to your daily earnings; certain punishments attract penalties of n days. Their record fine for speeding? €100K+ to a Nokia executive. £60 isn’t much of a deterrent, whereas a week’s wages might be.— damo567
and this too..
These ideas need to be held onto – put forward at policy forums / campaign initiatives.
We need the expansion of these into the awareness of the public, to finallly ensure that those who have been allowed to operate dangerous machinery must have the minimum level of maturity and responsibility.
Too many vehicles as it is. Unless the government(s) have something to gain from allowing vast numbers of pathologically irresponsible motor vehicle users onto the road?
Next week they’re going to
Next week they’re going to try catching murderers!
I think that how these
I think that how these operations work is limited by funding available. Turns out that there aren’t lots of police waiting around, ready to be deployed at a moments notice, but that they’ve all been given things to do already. If someone in the police (and contrary to popular opinion, it’s not a single monolithic group who agree on everything) wants to run a campaign like this, then they have to get the funds together to pay for it
so, someone will have put together a proposal, hawked it around, probably with powerpoint involved somewhere, got agreement and funding for a limited time
as part of the proposal, they’ll have some monitoring, see if it’s made any impact, then maybe it will get picked up as a regular thing. Maybe
I know this from spending some time on my local police community forum. They always made a big deal about this anti-drug dealer initiative they had, Operation Eagle of Death or something exciting like that, then one time I asked how come they weren’t taking on some local notorious crack house with it. Turned out it was out of budget cycle
Boring, isn’t it. You think it’s going to be like The Untouchables, then it turns out more like Project Zeus from Peep Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hBLYbR3Tn4
The real problem is that the
The real problem is that the government knew when the brought the law in that mobile driving is just as dangerous as drink driving, but they treated it as much less serious, so everybody treated it as if it wasn’t serious.
If they had introduced the same punishments as for drink driving all those years ago, we wouldn’t have the problem now. Short sighted, complacent idiotic politicians screw it up again, people die and now they have to put right what should never have been wrong in the first place.
The current proposal for doubling the fine and licence points means nothing; we need cameras that detect mobile use, instant two year ban with no appeal, and prison for repeat offenders. With our wimps of MPs there’s fat chance of that happening, until someone important dies of course.