Mobile phone penalties getting stronger

[TooMany2cvs]

Mentioned several times on the R4 news this morning so far. Apparently, 20+ fatal and 80+ serious collisions have been blamed on mobile use in the last year.

FPN £100 going to £150.
3pts going to 4pts, 6pts for drivers of wagons.
Courses will still be available.

[RobinOakapple]

Good.

Bit more enforcement would be good too.

[WaferThinHam]

Meh, see heaps of people on the phone and very few police on the roads. It'll make zero difference.

[supertouring]

Lack of policing and increases in traffic means lower driving standards.

As above, no one cares about the fines as very unlikey to be caught.

[supertouring]

Lack of policing and increases in traffic means lower driving standards.

As above, no one cares about the fines as very unlikey to be caught.

[nickwilcock]

And yet we see more and more 'Internet enabled' vehicles being produced with potentially distracting large screen displays...

Digi-yoof is addicted to Farsebook and Tw@tter, so an increase in fines for the use of mobile phones at the wheel is going to have little effect.

No doubt there'll also be the usual nonsense calls for hands-free phone use also to be banned. How could that ever be enforced? DWCA already covers inappropriate use, in my opinion.

[rambo19]

FPN should be £1000 and 6 points.
And seize the car.

[Driver101]

It's not really a significant difference. People will still not care.

[rewc]

supertouring said:

Lack of policing and increases in traffic means lower driving standards.

As above, no one cares about the fines as very unlikey to be caught.

The first choice of enforcement will still be to offer education on a Driver Awareness Course. I wonder if the Fine is raised to £150 whether the cost of attendance on the course will rise also?

[jmorgan]

Driver101 said:

It's not really a significant difference. People will still not care.

Yep. People buy a two way radio and think they now have some devine right to use whenever they want to. End of the world if you took it away.

So,, some token publicity stunt then back to normal?

[Amused2death]

Here's an idea.

1st time caught = immediate 1 month ban (i.e. there and then, at the roadside)

2nd time caught = 1 year ban.

N.B. Usual exemption if done due to an emergency situation.

If you aren't allowed to drive then you can use your mobile to your heart's content.

[Beggarall]

Driver101 said:

It's not really a significant difference. People will still not care.

I think that's probably right although they will care if they get caught. It's a chance they take - quick look round to see no-one's looking (maybe) and then do it. I think we probably have a similar attitude to speed limits (within reason).

[MarshPhantom]

rambo19 said:

FPN should be £1000 and 6 points.
And seize the car.

Seriously?

It should depend on what you're doing, I don't find talking on the phone distracting at all, people who text or look on facebook is a different matter.

[55palfers]

There's lots of motoring penalties for lots of motoring "crimes"

The only ones that are actively enforced are parking and speeding via camera.

There's easy money in those, so lots of enforcement via wardens and cameras....

[surveyor]

Here's an idea.... Let legislation catch up with technology.

How many phones are now way more than phones. How many cars integrate partially with Bluetooth Streaming etc.

Put the technology in place that we don't need to touch our phones to choose music, make calls etc. and make it work instead of the buggers muddle that we have now.

That genies is out of the bottle, so let's get with it.

[jmorgan]

Or fit devices to cars that interfere with the distraction and disables the phone.......

[barker22]

Amused2death said:

Here's an idea.

1st time caught = immediate 1 month ban (i.e. there and then, at the roadside)

2nd time caught = 1 year ban.

N.B. Usual exemption if done due to an emergency situation.

If you aren't allowed to drive then you can use your mobile to your heart's content.

Which is great, until the rare situation that occurs where someone sat in a queue just picks up their phone to move it or similar and ends up with a ban because of the way the current law works around the word 'using'

For actual driving I agree the penalty should be severe.
However, for me, there needs to be two tiers depending on if the car is moving or stationary, with stationary covering traffic lights or queueing. There just isn't the same level of risk. But a punishment should be handed out either way.

[Jonleeper]

Amused2death said:

Here's an idea.

1st time caught = immediate 1 month ban (i.e. there and then, at the roadside)

2nd time caught = 1 year ban.

N.B. Usual exemption if done due to an emergency situation.

If you aren't allowed to drive then you can use your mobile to your heart's content.

"Pull over, my name is Dredd, you're banned"

Because we've all heard nothing but great stories on here about how people were stationary in a traffic jam, or didn't even have their mobile in the car and were still done with no redress.

[Amused2death]

Jonleeper said:

Amused2death said:

Here's an idea.

1st time caught = immediate 1 month ban (i.e. there and then, at the roadside)

2nd time caught = 1 year ban.

N.B. Usual exemption if done due to an emergency situation.

If you aren't allowed to drive then you can use your mobile to your heart's content.

"Pull over, my name is Dredd, you're banned"

Because we've all heard nothing but great stories on here about how people were stationary in a traffic jam, or didn't even have their mobile in the car and were still done with no redress.

Could easily be verified with information from network provider. Agreed the issue of usage whilst stationary doesn't create quite the same issues of distraction so maybe that could be addressed with some form of financial penalty and points.

My idea may not be perfect, but if those were the penalties then usage would drop, or those that do it and get caught would be removed from the road. In either case it would be no bad thing.

[MarshPhantom]

Amused2death said:

Here's an idea.

1st time caught = immediate 1 month ban (i.e. there and then, at the roadside)

2nd time caught = 1 year ban.

N.B. Usual exemption if done due to an emergency situation.

If you aren't allowed to drive then you can use your mobile to your heart's content.

This is problem with making it illegal. Driving while on the phone isn't difficult but it's pretty obvious you're doing it, texting is far less obvious but a million times more distracting.