IN THE END it is the only way: police have proposed to parliament to amend the law and introduce penalty points for drivers booked speaking on the mobile phone while at the wheel.
Anyone caught talking (let alone texting) and driving currently faces a fine of £50.
But that is clearly not enough. There are too many drivers and not enough police officers to allow a systematic crackdown on the offence. What’s more, a driver spotting a police car can simply drop the phone, avoiding detection, whereas a motorcyclist without a helmet will always get caught out.
At present, you may get caught, but it’s rare enough to discount the risk, especially when the fine – once in a blue moon – is not steep enough to be a serious deterrent.
Yet the offence is serious. How anyone thinks they can drive with one hand, let alone change gears at the same time, and be perfectly safe is simply baffling. What’s more, research has shown that on top of the loss of control implied by having one hand off the wheel, there is a serious loss of concentration involved in talking to someone on the other end of a remote device.
And while the consequences in town are unlikely to be any more than a fender bender, on the open road, any loss of attention or control of the vehicle can be the difference between life and death.
So it is important to get a handle on the problem. There will never be enough police to ensure every driver is fined every time they use a phone. So there needs to be a deterrent steep enough to make you think twice about the risk of getting caught. The risk of accumulating points that could eventually disqualify you from driving is just the kind of deterrent needed, preferably accompanied by a more expensive fine. Let’s hope deputies agree with the police.
TALKING of fines, it is with satisfaction that we note the first cases of people being issue on-the-spot fines for smoking in public buildings. The law has been on the statue books for a while now, and we all see the obligatory no-smoking signs in hospitals and government offices.
Too often, however, the sign remains obscured by the haze of smoke emitted by a recalcitrant official. While the first tentative action by the police is to be welcome, the public service needs to crack down on its own employees before it can legitimately expect members of the public to respect the new rules.
And before the civil servants can be expected to fall into line their political masters must set the first example. It is shocking that deputies still smoke during parliamentary committees in the middle of the most public of all public buildings, the House of Representatives. The very people who passed the law must be the first to obey it.
