The threat of a fine of £200 and 6 penalty points does little to dissuade many drivers from using their phones behind the wheel. Motorists know the risk of getting caught is extremely low and ignore the fact they’re putting lives at risk. As a result, the behaviour has become endemic.
Our compulsive behaviour around mobile phones was highlighted by an American study of 1,000 drivers, 98 per cent of whom agreed it was dangerous to text and drive. However, 74 per cent claimed they’d done it themselves with 30 per cent claiming it was ‘simply a habit’ they believed did not have an impact on their own driving performance.
Dr Greenfield, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at The University of Connecticut, who worked on the report, said at the time of publication; “We compulsively check our phones because every time we get an update through text, email or social media, we experience an elevation of dopamine, which is a neurochemical in the brain that makes us feel happy. If that desire for a dopamine fix leads us to check our phones while we’re driving, a simple text can turn deadly.”
Over 8,000 UK motorists have over 12 penalty points and yet escape a driving ban
Research by Nottingham Trent University found that the average user checks their phone 85 times a day and that ‘rapid mobile phone interactions’, less than 30 seconds, are becoming habitual for smartphone users, with many not realising the frequency with which they check their phone. Young drivers in particular are more likely to be distracted. Just under half of drivers (49%) aged 25–34 admitted they sometimes go online or use apps while driving. Almost a third of drivers in the same age group said they do this several times a week at least.
Can technology help address the fact that mobile phone use while driving has become second nature for a significant proportion of UK drivers? Nissan has developed a glove compartment that doubles up as a Faraday cage that shields phones from incoming signals while roadside cameras are being developed to catch drivers using phones in the act. However, if phone use while driving is to become as socially unacceptable as drink driving perhaps we all need to take responsibility as individuals – not only by putting our own phones away while driving, but by confronting those that so casually put lives at risk.
The young girl on the bike wore a helmet, hi-viz & had lights on her bike.
Her parents made sure she had everything she needed to keep her safe.
But none of it works because using a phone while driving is illegal but not taboo. pic.twitter.com/spHUePRolh
— Jo Rigby (@Jo_Earlsfield) December 6, 2021
When we asked Jo about her courageous intervention, she said: “He made me run down Chestnut Grove in heels to do this! I kept thinking that could have been my daughter and I’d like someone to do the same if they saw a driver anywhere near her on their phone.”
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Vincent Edwards
It’s going back to the mid 1960s, but I think it’s true to say that drink driving was not seen as particularly serious until the breathalyzer was introduced, along with a mandatory twelve-month disqualification and possible prison sentence. And even then it took several more years for drink-driving to be seen as not the sort of thing which respectable people do.
Using a ‘phone while driving was allowed to become entrenched before the £30 penalty (no points) was introduced. It’s now crept up to £200 and 6 points in a half-hearted attempt to make motorists take it seriously.
On the whole I’d rather take my chances with a drink driver than someone who texts/checks Facebook at the wheel. Why on earth do we not treat ‘phone drivers at least as seriously as drink drivers?
Gavin
The only time “the law” will act in this instance is 1: You’re rich; 2. You’re a member of the House of Windsor and 3. You’re a member of the this rancid useless Government. The law of this country (civil and criminal) is not there for “ordinary people” – it’s a fiction. It never has been there for us. We exist to pay the bulk of the tax take so the rich can do as they please. Thankfully most folk will go to their graves and never work it out that they’ve been mugged off all their lives by their own corrupt Government.