Update: Police target mobile menace (From Witney Gazette)

Update: Police target mobile menace

1:10pm Tuesday 27th February 2007 in Headlines By The Page Turner

POLICE caught six people using mobile telephones, 11 not wearing their seat belts, three not in control of their vehicles and one with no tax during an operation in Botley Road, Oxford, today.

Officers were getting tough with drivers flouting the ban on the use of hand-held mobiles at the wheel, but many appear to have already got the message.

The force can now issue tougher penalties under new legislation which comes into force from today.

Instead of the previous £30 fine, intoduced in 2003, drivers now face a £60 fine and three penalty points on their driving licence.

Drivers stopped in the Thames Valley will be given the chance to attend a course, costing £74, instead of getting the points on their licence, to learn about the dangers of driving while using a mobile phone.

Yesterday, between 9am and 10am, at the junction of Botley Road and Ferry Hinksey Road, we spotted four drivers using hand-held mobiles, and one woman driver texting as she slowly approached traffic lights. A woman cyclist was also seen using her phone.

It was an improvement on last year, when we carried out a similar survey and 13 motorists were spotted using their mobiles.

The penalties were toughened up after tests which showed the normal reaction times of drivers using a hand-held mobile phone were nearly 50 per cent slower than normal and also slower than drink-drivers.

Roads policing manager Malcolm Collis said: "The Call Divert workshop gives us the opportunity to educate drivers about why using a hand-held mobile phone while driving is dangerous.

"We hope to change drivers' attitudes and make the roads safer by offering education as an alternative to punishment."

The vast majority of drivers using Botley Road during our checks were keeping their hands on the steering wheel, though a man in a Mercedes finished one call and then started another in a queue near the Botley Road rail bridge.

Our survey followed a police roadside check during rush-hour in Ock Street, Abingdon, earlier this month. Eleven drivers were stopped for using phones, while 18 were not wearing seatbelts.

During another reent check, in Henley, police found a driver reading a newspaper.

In the four years since it became an offence to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving, Thames Valley Police has issued more than 20,000 fines.

Andrew Howard, head of road safety for the AA, said: "Too many motorists have yet to make the connection between using a phone and prison terms handed down by courts for causing death by dangerous driving.

"Our best advice to drivers who carry handheld mobile phones in the car is: get the message, switch to message."