I decided to start this item with the 450 a day figure, as it shocked me and I hope it does the same for you, because new figures released by The Department of Justice, equates to almost 165,000 of us each year getting caught using a hand held phone while driving.
Police issued 164,900 fixed penalty notices for the offence in 2006, a 30% increase on the previous year, so despite many more vehicles having in-built blue tooth systems or being phone wired and despite all the publicity, we are clearly ignoring the law, which many people feel is preventing them from doing something they don’t feel is dangerous.
Despite tougher penalties, which now involve a £60 fine and 3 penalty points on your licence, a recent survey amongst police forces indicated that the numbers of people breaking this law is still continuing to rise, as I imagine motorists feel the police are maybe not so vigilant in trying to catch them, but in fact, that cant be further from the truth.
The figures don’t give an indication of what percentage are private motorists and what percentage are business drivers, but certainly, from our experience, many of the vehicles we now supply are fitted with systems to allow safe use of a mobile phone.
Fact is that if your staff are using hand held phones whilst driving, driving on business, you must understand that the driver will not solely accountable for using that phone and by condoning it, you as the employer leave yourself open to significant risk as if your employee has an accident whilst making a business call, you and your company could be held legally responsible, so you MUST enforce a policy with your drivers which makes it absolutely clear that you do not allow the use of hand held mobile phones when in company vehicles.
Its clear that drivers don’t realise just how dangerous using a hand held mobile phone is and for what ever reason, despite hard hitting TV ad’s, the message clearly isn’t hitting home.
HOWEVER – Studies show that you are four times more likely to have an accident when using a hand held mobile phone at the wheel and they aint good odd’s……
