D-day for mobile phone using drivers.


by Mexico - Date: 2007-02-28 - Word Count: 444 Share This!

February 27th 2007 is " D " day for u.k. car drivers who use mobile phones whilst driving. From this date the penalty for using a mobile phone whilst driving is £60 fixed penalty and 3 points on your driving licence.Previously the peanlty was just the £60 fine. Will this be enough to discourage the thousands of motorists who can still be regulary seen with one hand on the wheel while the other presses the phone to their ear? It should be as after 4 offences they will be pedestrians ! Don't think that you are safe with hand free either as if it can be proved that you were not in control of the vehicle while talking on the phone the offence still applies. Presumably this would only be invoked if you had an accident or were seen driving erratically by a policeman , phone records and indeed your own phone memory would be used to prove the offence.The sensible thing to do if you are called while driving is to pull over ( remember to switch the engine off ) and ring them back, your phone should log the calling number. If you are the type of driver who needs to call a lot of people while driving ( businessmen etc ) make a stop , get a cup of coffee and make your calls while the car is staionary , the break will do you good as well refreshing you before you continue your journey. Expect the police to be high profile on this offence after the 27th as they will want to glean maximum publicity from the media and create a " shock wave " that will be passed on by word of mouth between motorists to ensure it becomes an effective deterrant. This is the first in a raft of new offences and penalties enabled by the Road Safety Act 2006 which passed through parliament late 2006. Other offences include the use of radar detectors ,causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving ,causing death by unlicenced ,disqualified or uninsured drivers, furious driving and being the registered keeper of a vehicle which is not insured for use. There are also provisions for graduated penalty points for various offences such as speeding which will range from 2 points to 6 points according to how far over the speed limit the driver was recorded doing. Also included is a section where the courts can specify an "alcohol ignition lock " for high risk drink driving offenders. The various parts of the act will be "switched on" by the Secretary of State in the coming months the first of which is the change to driving while using a mobile phone.
My business website :-
Private Number Plates

Related Tags: mobile phones, road safety

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: