LOOPHOLES around mobile phone use while driving have been closed and new rules are now in effect. The consequences of breaking them, Thames Valley Police say, can be catastrophic.
From Friday, March 25, drivers touching their phone for any reason bar emergency use or making toll bridge payments will be fined £200, and face receiving penalty points of their licence.
The rules forbid everything from checking the time, checking notifications, unlocking the device, and illuminating the screen.
Making, receiving or rejecting a telephone or internet-based call is off-limits, as is using the camera to take photos, make video or sound recordings.
Accessing any stored data, apps or the internet is not allowed, nor can you draft any text.
There are just two exemptions: allowing for a call to be made in an emergency where is it not practical to stop, and for contactless payment provided that the vehicle has been stopped.
The aim is to prevent drivers from getting distracted.
Sergeant Dave Hazlett, of Thames Valley Police’s Road Safety Unit, said: “Data shows you are four times more likely to be involved in a collision if you use a mobile phone while driving.
“The consequences of using a mobile phone at the wheel can be catastrophic, and you are placing not only yourself but other road users at significant risk.”
The rules, he said, needed to be changed because smartphones had changed. When the current laws were put together, phones were used mainly to make calls or send text messages.
Now, Sgt Hazlett says, “the modern mobile phone is part of people’s everyday lives.
“The first thing you would probably pick up in the morning when you wake up is your phone to check what’s going on, looking at notifications, reading the news.
“They are a mobile office for some people.”
This reliance means the temptation is there to keep checking while on the move, so Sgt Hazlett is grateful that the law has been, like phones, upgraded from their earlier iteration.
“The law change, while strong welcomed, is frankly long overdue,” he says. “Mobile phones are a significant cause of distraction in vehicles.”
He said he has dealt with, and been to, collisions involving unlawful, illegal mobile phone use, so he has seen first hand the danger the mobile phone use can cause, adding that those making calls or checking messages would be “hard pressed to convince any family of someone who has been killed or seriously injured that it’s an incidental product of people using them behind the wheel”.
“Even in slow moving or stationary traffic, the driver’s attention is diverted from things they need to be aware of, such as a pedestrian who has crossed the road in front of them, or the person walking behind the vehicle while reversing.
“There’s this significant distraction that a phone provides, and it does lead, unfortunately, to unnecessary and devastating collisions. We want to do and reduce that.”
Using a phone as a sat nav needs to follow the Highway Code – so phones need to be secured either by a windscreen mount or a permanent fixture. It should also be Bluetooth and voice command enabled, to prevent phones from being touched.
If drivers need to change the destination, they need to pull over.
“If you’re in queueing in traffic, you’re still in the act of driving, and you do leave yourself open to potential prosecution if you are seen,” Sgt Hazlett said.
“Some will say that’s harsh. However, the laws have been changed for a reason.”
And he warned “simply having your phone in your hand would be good enough for a prosecution to take place”.
Sgt Hazlett said: “When you kill someone if you’ve been driving while using your phone, then you’re the reason someone has been killed.
“You’re placing yourself in a position where you could in a have a term of imprisonment for checking an email, is it really worth that?”
He added: “It is incumbent on drivers to take the responsible decision.
“Don’t take that call, wait and then phone that person back and have an undistracted conversation where you can be immersed in that call without putting myself and other people at risk.”
