Number of fines for the offence in England and Wales have tumbled from 123,100 in 2011 to just 16,900 in 2015

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Drivers using mobile phones at the wheel are regularly escaping punishment, with police now imposing a fraction of the number of fines given five years ago.

Although mobile phone use has been linked to a string of traffic accidents, official figures show that the number of fixed penalty notices issued by police in England and Wales for the offence has fallen from 123,100 in 2011 to just 16,900 in 2015. The total fell by 43% in 2014-15, the last recorded year.

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The RAC said the figures showed an epidemic of handheld mobile use going unchallenged. Its road safety spokesman, Pete Williams, said: “The number of fixed penalty notices issued by police forces in England and Wales for illegal handheld phone use at the wheel has, frankly, fallen off a cliff.

“The figures lay bare the scale of the handheld mobile phone epidemic that has been allowed to sweep across the country largely unchallenged. The simple truth is the problem of illegal handheld phone use at the wheel is undeniably getting worse, with fewer and fewer people being caught.”

The Department for Transport (DfT) has vowed to crack down on the use of mobiles at the wheel – a factor cited in 22 fatal accidents last year – by doubling fines. But government statistics released on Thursday suggest depleted police forces are no longer willing or able to enforce the rules.

Some of the drop in fixed penalties has been ascribed to drivers being more aware of the law or police sending drivers on education courses, but the number of fines issued for offences caught automatically by cameras, such as speeding, have increased.

Other infringements are being ignored, motoring organisations believe. The data shows that the number of fines issued for seatbelt offences has dropped dramatically, from 140,900 in 2011 to 19,800 last year.

RAC research released in September showed that the proportion of motorists who believe calling while driving is acceptable has doubled to 14%, from 7% in 2014, and one in five drivers believes it is safe to check social media on their phone while stopped in traffic.

Williams said: “Attitudes are clearly relaxing as a result of drivers no longer fearing punishment.”

Last month the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, announced that tougher penalties would be introduced from 2017, likely to raise fixed penalty fines from £100 to at least £150, and the number of points added to the driving licence of offenders from three to four or six, potentially with higher sanctions for HGV drivers.

But the RAC said fewer traffic police meant that motorists had decreasing confidence that the law would be enforced. According to the RAC, there has been a 27% decline in full-time roads policing officers since 2010.

The DfT said it would also be starting a “hard-hitting campaign” to make phone use at the wheel socially unacceptable.

Chief constable Suzette Davenport, of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “Police have adapted to significant increases in motorists’ use of mobile phones at the wheel, as well as phones themselves becoming much smarter.

“In recent years, officers have had more tactics available them, such as sending offenders on courses to learn about the impact and consequences of driving when distracted and the key principles of road safety, and our approach is a blend of enforcement and education.

“Like drink-driving, we have to work towards changing people’s attitudes. We measure success not only in terms of the number of offenders caught, but also by driving behaviours changed.”

But Brake, the road safety charity, said police were under-resourced to stop offences.

Spokeswoman Lucy Amos said: “Research has shown this to be a rapidly growing problem on the roads, but this is not reflected in the number fixed penalty notices issued for mobile phone use in the figures released today.

“Instead, these figures are evidence of the lack of resources and manpower available to the police.”

She added: “We urge the government to make roads policing a national policing priority to prevent illegal, risk-taking behaviour behind the wheel.”

According to the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, 3,611 reported road accidents from 2009-2014 involved a driver using a mobile phone, and there is clear evidence linking mobiles to an increased risk of accident.



A government spokesman said: “While enforcement of road traffic offences is an operational matter for the police, we are clear that the illegal use of handheld devices while driving is totally unacceptable.



“We take this extremely seriously and will be shortly announcing tougher penalties for using mobile phones at the wheel.”

‘People just don’t know how dangerous it is’

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Carvin family, victims of a texting driver.

Paul Carvin, 59, is a retired school inspector from Morpeth, Northumberland. In February 2006 his wife, Zoë, 42, was killed by a driver who was texting on a mobile phone.

“Zoë and her mother were taking their dogs to the beach for a walk, and were parked at traffic lights on the A1, when a lorry driver doing 50mph and texting ploughed into the back of their car. She was killed outright and her mum was badly injured.

“My daughter Emily was 11 and my son Ben was 13. I can still remember everything that happened that day – looking out the window, seeing them laughing and playing with their friends, knowing something I was about to tell them would change their lives forever.

“I remember the scream my daughter let out. I can’t think of anything worse than telling your children their mum has been killed.

“Zoë was killed at 10.42am on a Thursday. For years afterwards I would know that time and day was approaching and it would cause me huge anxiety and palpitations.

“From that moment our lives changed forever – all sorts of things like anxiety, depression, bereavement – just because someone did something stupid like using a phone.

“Zoë was a teacher, so she tended to be the person who was home at the end of the day for the children after school. Suddenly it was me, bereaved, with two bereaved children to look after alone.

“And also, in a sense, her whole class was bereaved. She taught seven-year-olds. When they came back after half term there was no teacher for them: in the community that’s hundreds of people affected.

“The driver was sentenced to four and a half years, released after two, handed a ban but was caught driving again. We’ve tried to never harbour ill-feeling, because we think it would only hurt us.

“We’ve tried to rebuild our lives, Emily still suffers a bit from depression and anxiety – but we’re all changed inside. We all feel very deeply about dangerous driving, but the use of mobile phones in particular. Research shows that it is the distraction: I’d ban hands-free phones too.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emily and Ben Carvin today. They were 11 and 13 when their mother died.

“They’re increasing the penalties but to my mind it should be a straight ban, like drink driving, but more so – it’s just as dangerous. Then people would know someone who was banned, the perception would change, word would get around that it is wrong.

“People don’t realise just how dangerous it is. The number of fines has gone down but mobile use in cars has clearly gone up.

“You see it all the time: in slow-moving traffic you can see people looking down, it’s obvious they’re texting. If they do it then, they will do it when they’re driving fast too.

“There aren’t enough police officers to catch everybody. It’s not a question of less usage – it’s fewer people being caught.

The chances of getting caught are negligible and the fine is negligible, even if goes up to £200. You can’t even buy most mobile phones for that.”