Cheshire Police is taking the opportunity to remind road users during the National Police Chiefs' Council mobile phone enforcement week that they face a £200 fine and six points if they are caught using their mobile phone while driving.
The campaign, which runs from 10 to 16 July, will again urge motorists not to be distracted by their phone - the potential consequences of this can be serious which is why new legislation was introduced back in March, doubling the penalty you face if you're caught.
Assistant Chief Constable Darren Martland said: "Our officers are out on the roads 24/7 policing the county and targeting those who flout the law. This week is our opportunity to reinforce the message that using a handheld mobile device is dangerous, completely reckless and will not be tolerated in Cheshire.
"The safety of Cheshire's roads is paramount and our Roads Policing Team will do all they can to enforce the law to keep our roads safe."
Police & Crime Commissioner for Cheshire David Keane said: "Road safety is a key objective of my Police and Crime Plan so we are delighted to be supporting this week of action. The Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner held our first Roads Policing Conference recently to see how we can work together with our partners and the community to keep Cheshire's roads safe.
"This week is an excellent way to keep that conversation going and highlight the work that our officers carry out every day. All of us deserve to use our roads safely and the message is clear: driving distracted should be seen as socially unacceptable as drink or drug driving."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
Unsurprising therefore that though hands-free in-car phone use is legal, it is no less distracting than illegal hands-on phone use. But it is almost impossible to detect,which is probably why it isn't illegal. Research has shown that the level of distraction caused by phone use is in a different league to that caused by chatting to in-car passengers or listening to the radio, to the extent it is incompatible with driving a car.
All in-car phone use should be illegal, and it should be mandatory that after every road 'accident' phone records are checked by the police, and very heavy penalties imposed if a phone, even a hands-free phone, was found to have been in use at the time.
A van driver who was texting almost hit me yesterday and was completely oblivious to this, even afterwards.
I say again, note pedestrians wandering along as if in a daze while using their phone, completely unaware of what's going on around them. And texting while driving is, as you say, a problem, but no less a problem for hands free.