Motorists warned: Just one mobile phone call can kill
Humberside Police are warning drivers that just one mobile phone call at the wheel could be fatal.
Road safety chiefs say drivers who flout the law are making "a contract with death" if they continue the bad and dangerous habit.
In a month-long clampdown by traffic officers, 73 drivers in North East Lincolnshire were fined.
According to data from Humberside Police, 2,717 drivers were caught using a mobile phone while driving a motor vehicle in 2010 and this increased to 2,958 drivers in 2011 – a rise of nine per cent.
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It was made illegal to have a phone in your hand while driving in December 2003, after a series of fatal crashes in the UK.
Committing the offence leads to a £60 fixed fine and three points endorsed on the offender's driving licence.
The driver may alternatively be given the option of attending an educational driving course.
Using mobiles is ranked by police alongside drink-driving, dangerous or careless driving, excess speed and not wearing a seatbelt as one of the biggest contributory factors in crashes.
Cleethorpes doorman Michael Buston, 36, was killed when a driver using a mobile phone crashed into his truck on the A631, near Gainsborough, in March 2007.
His widow Joanne, 42, said it makes her feel sick every time she sees a motorist using a mobile phone.
She said: "I see it on a daily basis. They should ignore any calls and wait until they can pull over and stop.
"They do not realise just how devastating it can be. Just one phone call can change the lives of so many people. Words fail me when I see people still using them.
"You can't give 100 per cent concentration to the road if you are on the phone and can lead to damaging consequences."
Casualty reduction officer Pc Barry Gardner said: "Once again these figures make good and bad reading for me.
"They are good in so far that my colleagues have detected as many offending drivers.
"These drivers will nearly all be given the option to attend a driving offenders course that is designed to educate drivers into not offending again.
"It is also bad in so far that there are so many drivers out there flouting the law that was put into place to help protect us all."
He said using a phone at the wheel is "entirely selfish behaviour".
"It is similar to all the other core offences we prosecute for, all the offenders must think that either they are above the law and that nothing will ever happen to them, or they think they will not get caught," he said.
"These figures show that the latter is not the case and that if a driver continues to break the law, sooner or later they will have to put up with the consequences, either that or suffer the misery of being involved in a road collision.
"In the 18 years I have been in the traffic section, I have attended numerous serious and fatal crashes, all very sad and tragic.
"The majority have been entirely avoidable and have had one of the core offences directly or indirectly responsible.
"I would therefore encourage everyone to refrain from using the mobile phone whilst driving and give us all a better chance of staying safe."
Comments
by jack_knife
Thursday, July 05 2012, 4:34PM
“billyboy,
I don't think it applies to police and other emergency vehicles while on duty. Just as they are exempt from wearing seat belts.”
by NoToTheVillageHall
Thursday, July 05 2012, 11:58AM
“Gry88, I did say between 23k and 38k, did I not? I'm not without sympathy for the front line Police, but people don't have a negative view of the Police for no reason. A lot of it is to do with the limits placed on them by having to do so much paperwork, job cuts, etc, but also a lot to do with incidents like the Police charging someone for flashing their lights to warn of a speed camera.
You are right, the courts do not give the Police the backup they require, but like the Police they have their hands tied to a certain extent by legislation and a lack of prison spaces.
The Police Force need to stop coming up with seasonal and monthly initiatives and just get on with their job quietly and sensibly.”
by Gry88
Thursday, July 05 2012, 11:15AM
“@NoToTheVillageHall - 37k is top end, PC being in the job 10 years or more. But at the moment the yearly increments of their salary have stopped I believe. Yes, Police are trained and paid for enforce the law, but do Police JUST do that? What about the other 100 jobs Police do other than enforce the law?
Also I think you'll find that its not the PC's on the front line who come up with these initiatives... Its higher up in the ranking structure who are doing it for promotions. They have no idea what goes on in a shift for a regular Police Officer attending all these arguments people have when they've had a few shandy's.....
Police enforce the law, do all the relevant paperwork (which is A LOT) and then the courts go.... Slap on the wrist my friend, don't do it again. If you do it again, ill slap your wrist again... Heard this before?”
by NoToTheVillageHall
Thursday, July 05 2012, 10:29AM
“Gry88 - A Police Constable earns between £23k and £37k. They are trained and paid to enforce the law. It is the Police themselves that come up with these initiatives, picking which law they will arrest people for breaking on a month by month basis. Drink driving at Christmas and 'Barbecue Season' (whatever that is), drugs in bars another month. They set themselves up for a fall.
PC Gardner stated "if a driver continues to break the law, sooner or later they will have to put up with the consequences" - this is a blatant lie. People flout this particular law on a daily basis with almost a 0% chance of being caught. Now it that's down to a lack of resource, then perhaps they shouldn't come up with these schemes?”
by Gry88
Thursday, July 05 2012, 9:57AM
“Just having a read at all these comments... I've noticed a lot of comments that go against the Police... Do any of you actually know anything about Policing? Have any of you driven a Police Vehicle around the town to try and "catch" motorists breaking the law? Have any of you done a full Police shift whereby you're constantly going from job to job because there's fight after fight, domestic after domestic. Do you actually think Police Officers get change to be pro-active these days?
@phantom2012 - You're obviously an unemployed idiot who knows nothing.
@realworldman - Go along in a Police Vehicle for a day and try and get drivers using their mobile phones! I bet my job on it its not as easy as you think it is!
I bet you Police hates are the FIRST people to call the Police to ask for help. And guess what? The Police will come, and help, an idiot like yourself, for what? 20k a year? Lovely stuff.”
by Seahunter_1
Thursday, July 05 2012, 9:28AM
“Tongue in cheek Bovis33. I think you would have had the book thrown at you if you had been driving your car on the pavement, whether your lights were on or off! and as to being in trouble for using a mobile at the time, that would have been the least of your worries ;o).”
by realworldman
Thursday, July 05 2012, 7:34AM
“Bovis... You forget that cyclists are immune to all laws of the road. They also have an invisible force field to protect them when riding in dark clothing in the dark.
If you were unlucky enough to hit the cyclist, you would be banged up for being so foolish as to not see it!!”
by billyboy13
Wednesday, July 04 2012, 1:15AM
“Does this law also apply to the police, on Monday afternoon I passed a police van, and guess what, the driver was using a mobile phone.”
by thealmighty
Tuesday, July 03 2012, 6:25PM
“who says men cannot multi-task, !”
by Bovis33
Tuesday, July 03 2012, 6:24PM
“This weekend, one evening, I followed a police vehicle at 25 mph through Scartho.
Maybe the officer(s) didn't spot the lad riding his bike on the pavement.
With no lights on.
Whilst using a mobile phone.
I suspect (as a motorist) I would have been pulled over if I'd have been spotted committing just one of those offences.”