Mobile clampdown to catch out drivers
Date: 11/03/2008 15:45:28
Drivers failing to abide by the ban on using mobile phones behind the wheel have been targeted by police in Lancashire.
A team of officers in Blackburn set up a checkpoint in Bolton Road to catch motorists using handheld mobile phones and issue £60 fixed penalty notices. Officers caught two drivers, who accepted that they were in the wrong and did not argue about the penalty, This Is Lancashire reports.
The penalty for using a mobile phone while driving is a fixed fine of £60 and three points on a driving licence.
Sergeant Jonathan Cisco said: "This is really a road trafficing issue, but it comes up all the time at our PACT meetings, so it becomes a community matter."
The £60 fine and three-point penalty on licences for motorists caught using a mobile phone while driving was introduced in Britain by the Department for Transport on 27th February 2007.
However, road safety experts have called for greater enforcement of the mobile phone ban on British roads.
A poll by the Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association found that all its members agreed with the legislation, but 90 per cent wanted stricter enforcement and 85 per cent felt that mobile phones were a distraction to drivers.