Calling time on mobiles

Between April and December 2006, north Worcestershire police issued 726 fixed penalty tickets to drivers for using hand-held mobile phones.

With the cost doubling from £30 to £60 next Tuesday, plus, for the first time, three penalty points on their licences, police are warning drivers who use mobiles that their number is up. Inspector John Morgan said: "In the last 15 years or so, mobile phones have gone from being luxury items to an essential for almost everyone, and with that people have got used to being able to contact each other at any time.

"However motorists need to ask themselves if it is really worth the risk. At best it could cost them £60 and three penalty points - with the potential loss of their licence for repeat offences. At worst it could cost a life - their own or that of someone else. It's their call." He added:"Drivers using a mobile phone are four times more likely to be involved in a collision. Even a split second lapse in concentration can result in a collision, with possibly fatal consequences."

Many drivers may not realise that as part of an investigation into a fatal or serious injury road traffic collision, their phone can be seized and checked to see if it was in use at the time. Sergeant Mark Layton, from the north Worcestershire road policing unit, said: "My colleagues and I regularly come across motorists chatting on mobiles or texting. If they could see, as we do all too often, lives ruined and families torn apart by road traffic collisions, it might make them think twice. The motorists who get pulled over and given a fixed penalty ticket may not realise it, but they are the lucky ones."

Police are reminding drivers that it is illegal to use a mobile phone, even while stopped at traffic lights or in a queue of traffic. Section 26 of the Road Safety Act 2006 increases the fixed penalty for drivers using a hand held phone or similar device from £30 to £60 and three penalty points.