Motorists still using mobiles at the wheel

Date: 8/4/2010

Drivers in the north-east are flouting road safety laws by continuing to use their mobile phones while at the wheel.

Despite the fact that it has been illegal to carry out the practice for three years in the UK, figures seen by the region's local newspaper the Chronicle have shown that ten people per day still get caught committing the crime.

Awareness campaigns have reduced the number of people risking their own and other people's safety on the road by talking on telephones while driving, but 2,580 motorists still did not take the advice throughout 2009.

Jeremy Forsberg, of the Northumbria Safer Roads Initiative, told the newspaper: "Using a mobile phone really is selfish behaviour. Essentially it is saying your call is worth more than someone else's safety or even possibly their life. There is a reason why it's illegal ... it's dangerous."

The CESSAR research institute recently revealed that the number of fatalities and injuries in traffic accidents would decrease by 40 per cent if everyone drove wearing safety belts - though fewer than half of all truck drivers currently do so.