Drivers using mobiles

The London Cycling Campaign is urging cyclists to report drivers they see using mobiles when behind the wheel.

London Cycling Campaign (LCC) cycling development officer Charlie Lloyd said: “When cycling, you must look out for drivers using mobile phones. Give them a wide berth and, if they're driving erratically, report them to the police.”

Charlie added, “If you witness, or are involved in a crash, ask the police if the driver has had their phone confiscated and ask that the records be checked to see when the phone was last used.”

A review looked at four TRL studies conducted since 2002 and revealed more needs to be done to define a level of distraction considered ‘safe’.

TRL research estimated that driver distraction contributes to 50% of all crashes, while a study earlier this year by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute revealed that texting while driving increases the risk of collision by 23 times.

This is just more LCC wishful thinking.

Firstly, the government of Gordon Brown doesn’t give a toss about drivers using mobile phones. If it did it would introduce legislation that brought instant disqualification for a minimum of one year for anyone caught using a mobile. So indifferent is the Brown government to ‘road safety’ that it is still not an offence to drive using a non-handheld mobile phone, despite the known danger.

Secondly, why should I waste my time reporting offenders to the Met? The Met is patently uninterested in enforcing road traffic law or in cracking down on drivers using mobile phones. And drivers know it. I hardly need to report such drivers: they go past Walthamstow police station on a very regular basis, as do speeding drivers (shown by the advisory speed sign outside) to the complete indifference of the officers inside.