Return of the mobile menace

Driver on Oldham Way uses her phone

THE Chronicle continues to highlight the blatant defiance of motoring safety law as motorists continue to use phones while driving

One of our photographers positioned himself at Mumps and in 30 minutes saw nine drivers using phones on the Oldham by-pass.

Statistics show such offences have risen by 14 per cent in the last six years - and that the number of drivers fined and given penalty points for the offence in that time has fallen thanks to alternative awareness courses, which impose no other penalty.

Last year 72,753 fixed-penalty notices were handed to drivers in the UK, down from 95,941 in 2013.

But almost 100,000 people took a driving awareness course last year. The course can be offered to first-time offenders instead of receiving points on their licence.

Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd defended the use of awareness courses as a way of improving general driver behaviour: “Awareness courses change people’s behaviour, whether it is drink-drivers or people caught on mobile phones. It gets the message out there just how dangerous it is. We are trying to make roads a safer place.

Paul Newman, whose sister Ellen was killed by a driver using a mobile phone, said: “I’m scared the figures will make people think they’ve conquered this — we really haven’t.”

In 2006, the Chronicle launched Mobile Menace, a campaign to highlight a change in the law that made it an offence to drive while using a phone.

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