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news
Driver using handheld mobile phone (image licensed CC BY 2.0 by DPP Law on Flickr)Government clamps down on handheld mobile phone use while driving
The Department for Transport (DfT) has announced that it will clamp down on motorists who use hand-held mobile phones while driving – including making it clear that they cannot use them while at traffic lights or in tailbacks, and banning their use for taking photos or video from the driver’s seat, among other things.
The news follows a public consultation which found that 81 per cent of respondents were in favour of tougher rules against drivers using handheld devices at the wheel.
The new rules will close a loophole resulting from a 2019 High Court ruling, DPP v Barreto, in which the latter appealed against a magistrates’ court conviction (previously upheld at Crown Court) for filming a crash scene as he drove past.
The High Court held that the law did not prohibit all use of a hand-held mobile phone while driving, but only phone calls and other types of “interactive communication,” and did not apply to using a hand-held device to record video.
While allowing Barreto’s appeal, however, Lady Justice Thirwell, was firm that the ruling did not give carte blanche to drivers to use their phones in that way, underlining that they could still be prosecuted for careless or dangerous driving.
Nevertheless, the judgment did create a potential defence for motorists using a handheld mobile phone while driving, and it is one that the DfT wants to remove.
> ‘Look – No hands!’ mobile phone pick-up truck driver can’t be prosecuted, say police (+ video)
Currently, other than in an emergency, drivers are banned from using a handheld mobile phone while driving to make a voice call or send a text or other message, but new legislation will also prohibit them from taking photos or videos, playing games, or scrolling through playlists.
The Highway Code will now also make it clear that drivers are not allowed to use a handheld device while stopped at traffic lights or sitting in traffic jams – something many, of course, do with the broadcaster Jeremy Vine filming one such example near Marble Arch in London just this week.
For those asking — yep, police aware. 🚓 https://t.co/4nLpCxgE3F
— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) November 27, 2021
Existing punishments of a £200 fixed penalty notice and six points on a driving licence will remain in force, and drivers will still be permitted to use devices hands-free, for example for navigation, so long as it is secured in a cradle, and even then police can take action if drivers are found to be distracted.
Motorists will also be allowed to use a handheld device to make a contactless payment, for instance when paying at a drive-thru restaurant or to pay a road toll, but only if the payment is made in conjunction with a card reader.
Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps said: “Too many deaths and injuries occur while mobile phones are being held.
“By making it easier to prosecute people illegally using their phone at the wheel, we are ensuring the law is brought into the 21st century while further protecting all road users.
“While our roads remain among the safest in the world, we will continue working tirelessly to make them safer, including through our award-winning THINK! campaign, which challenges social norms among high-risk drivers.”
Mary Williams, chief executive of the road safety charity Brake, said: “Driver distraction can be deadly and using a hand-held phone at the wheel is never worth the risk. This important road safety decision by government, coinciding with Road Safety Week, is very welcomed.
“This news is particularly welcomed by families suffering bereavement and catastrophic injury due to drivers being distracted by phones. The theme for Road Safety Week is road safety heroes – we can all be road safety heroes by giving driving our full attention.”
The DfT has also published the results of a survey conducted by Ipsos MORI about drivers’ use of mobile phones, which found that younger motorists are more likely to have used a handheld device at the wheel.
Image above licensed CC BY 2.0 by DPP Law on Flickr – see www.dpp-law.com/driving-offences-statistics/
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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30 comments
Must not respond to troll, must not respond to troll.... oh bugger it!
Nick Freeman's extensive knowledge of road traffic law is equivalent to the Terminator's detailed files on human anatomy which make it a more effective killing machine.
That he is mentioned in any context of road safety is utterly offensive given the heinous motoring crimes which he has managed to get his rich celebrity clients off on technicalities. Even he recognises his approach is morally unjustifiable*.
*according to his wikipedia entry.
Presumably Nick F is going for his version of the prestige whereby he points out potential loopholes in a proposed law ahead of time, then cleans up by exploiting them once said proposal is enacted because politicians had their own reasons not to fix them.
The penalties need to be stronger to make it less appealing for the drivers. It's amazing how many drivers you see that have no regard for using a phone while driving, and they don't even attempt to hide it.
I was stopped at a set of traffic lights over a narrow bridge on Sunday, and as I was stopped there were 3 drivers on their hand held phones as they drove over the bridge, out of the 8 or 9 that crossed the bridge as I was waiting.
It was plain as the nose on your face but they simply didn't care. There were no attempts to hide the fact that they were using their phones.
Wondering if you can actually put a number on how much this increases the risk to drivers themselves (or from other drivers to them). I'm guessing overall this racks up the casualty numbers but individual risk is negligable. So likely another issue that would require really heavy enforcement or becoming socially stigmatised for any change.
Like the close pass / other road issues I really don't see why a small investment (well tens of millions but that's small beans in budget terms) in a national video reporting portal for the police couldn't save a lot of their time (so money) overall.
Oh wait - UK and national IT projects. UK police and IT projects. And I guess it would still take a small but fixed chunk of police time going through these even if charging people / issuing a punishment fine was a mostly simple administrative process. The more crime reported, more time spend dealing with it.
As you were then!
I know the AA have given this a campaign, the next year there was a Think! campaign (hmm...), there was one in 2016 in Northern Ireland...
The Transport Research Laboratory has done the research. Making a phone call while driving increases your risk of a crash by 4x, about the same as being over the limit for alcohol. Using a phone to text or use the Internet while driving increases the risk of a crash by 18x.
Thanks. Increasing risk 18x has got to mean something to people, even if the average risk of a crash without any of these is pretty low?
How about a campaign like the recent "share the road" one from Think! but it's cycling screen savers! Almost the same plot but the woman's texting, then gets reminded by a helpful cyclist at the conflict point (or at some lights) she's 18 x more likely to crash while doing so. She thanks the cyclist and puts the phone away. Happy ending. Saved by the cyclist.
If you had your phone in a cradle, and were using a SAT/NAV app, would be be allowed to touch the screen to select Yes or No, if prompted to find a quicker route?
And maybe other one click interactions too?
Yes, the same as with the current computer screens in cars now.
It's all well enforcing the crime, but if the police are not interested, what then? I reported a woman texted whilst driving. I had HD footage with sound. I asked her to put the phone down when I caught up with her in traffic, she replied that she was texting her daughter at school before telling me to fuck off, driving off whilst still texting. The police response was that it wasn't as if she was doing 70mph, it wasn't in the public interest to prosecute, and she had better things to do than chase after drivers using their phones. Unbelievable.
But if I had dissed someone on Twitter then I am sure the armed response unit would have been kicking my door down.
Sounded like a lazy officer there. Shame you didn't take it further or publicised the response on Twitter copying in the various Police accounts and the Comish and maybe some (cycle friendly) newspapers.
I did. I complained to the Police Standards Dept. They couldn't be bothered to follow it up, despite me chasing them up on it. Cretins, the lot of them. This isn't the only lazy officer I have had, every time I have reported it to the police they have come up with an excuse why they can't or won't do anything. Lancashire police = lazy fuckers.
Sadly I am not on Twitter, FB etc.
That is literally the problem with a lot of our justice system in a nutshell. You can act tough, and increase the penalties all you like, but if those minded to break the law don't believe they will be caught and punished, it is completely and utterly pointless and they will just carry on.
I am, to the surprise of nobody, endorsing BPs condemnation of Lancashire Constabulary's refusal to prosecute almost any traffic offence. My specialties are red light crashing and close-passing, but I have also submitted handheld phone use - all with a complete lack of response. Surely this is the worst and most idle police force in England? Anyone else got photos of gross red light crashing at speed? (or even slowly!)
Ahhh, didn't realise he was a Lancastrian as well. Yep, can understand the response he got then.
You would hope so, God forbid if all police forces demonstrated such a lack of concern for cyclists. Oh, wait, hang on a minute.....
Fear not! I am working hard. I have done all the worthless complaints to Professional Standards and the PCC, which was as hopeless as I anticipated. All I need is the final letter to Ben Wallace MP in which I say that if the only thing he can do is wait several months and then send me the pathetic and nonsensical letter from the police, I might just as well get on with the YouTube channel. I have very many perfect videos of offences of all types which LC just ignored, and today I received the final letter from LC stating that a PC having a word with him was all I would be getting after the videoed threats to fucking flatten me and to knock me off the road by the psycho BMW driver. All the video was rendered useless, apparently, because the driver has apologised! I already have a name for the channel. It should not be too long now
If I scroll past a video, it's because I don't want to watch it. It's a little bit annoying when it then auto-pops into the bottom right corner of the screen.
You clearly haven't given it the attention it deserves....
...and how can you tell that you don't want to watch it without first watching it? Keep an open-mind, people.
I keep having to check the phone on my dashboard because the "don't drive distracted!" app is sending me reminders.
When is this coming into effect
Maybe next year, of course it might depend on vested interests...
Ban the drivers for seven days, no fine, no points; but make it mandatory for the police to inform the insurance companies. Motorists would be horrified at the higher annual premium; which they deserve.
The police don't want to deal with motoring crime as it makes them unpopular with motorists and the insurance companies have been allowed to hide from the actions of their clients. Change things now to keep people safe.
Automatic 7 day ban and a letter to the insurance company are probably the best 2 ideas on this subject ever put forward.
My personal anecdata from my lunchtime walk is that at any one time, 1% to 2% of drivers are actively using a hand held mobile phone. Worst offenders seem to be trades in work vans.
Although relying on private companies to financially punish their customers instead of the Law is wishing for a bit much. There will always be one that will take the gamble of "mobile phone usage letters won't be added to the premium" type marketing. Of course they will probably scalp these people in other ways but it would appear that they are escaping direct punishment. And TBH, two Mobile phone usges or one of those and a couple of other bad driving and they are banned for several months, and also has higher premiums.
If you're caught over the limit for alcohol or under the influence of drugs while driving, you face a 12 month driving ban. All the research shows that being on the phone while driving is at least as dangerous as being under the influence of alcohol. Using a phone to access emails or text is actually significantly more dangerous than being under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
So if you really want to ram home the message about the actual driving dangers, don't pussyfoot around with seven day bans. Be realistic. Drivers caught on the phone while behind the wheel should face 12 points on the licence and a 12 month driving ban.
Using a phone while driving is so normalised people don't appreciate what they're doing.
Hands-free phone kits for drivers should be banned also, as all the research shows they make no difference at all because the driver distraction is linked to the limits on human brain capacity.
Police in "unpopular with criminals" shocker
I know what you mean though
Seven days not enough. Make the punishment tough then the crime will stop. I have always said it should be a one month ban, instantly. The vehicle should be towed and stored for one month. Also throw in a £1000 fine and 6 points. You have to be tough folks if you want this scourge to cease.
You forgot about destroying the precious phone.
Cruel and unusual punishment
You monster....