MP condemns call to ban drivers from using hands-free phones

PROPOSALS to ban drivers from using hands-free phones have been condemned by an MP.

Michael Fabricant, Conservative MP for Lichfield, said speaking on a hands-free phone was no more distracting than having noisy children in the car.

The House of Commons Transport Committee this week said it wanted tougher laws to stop people using a phone while driving – even if it is a hands-free device. It comes after 43 people were killed in one year following a road traffic collision involving a driver using a phone.

The Committee of MPs said tougher rules would prevent the “entirely avoidable” tragedy of deaths and serious injuries from related drivers using their mobile phone.

The MPs said: “Driving while using a mobile phone impairs the ability to drive safely and increases the risk of a collision.” But Mr Fabricant said: “The Transport Committee recommends even hands-free mobile phones should be illegal for drivers. Isn’t talking to a passenger or having two noisy kids in the car equally, if not more, distracting?

“Should they be banned, too? I think not. Keep the law as it is.”

The House of Commons Transport Committee published its recommendations days after a senior police officer was fined £1,460 after being involved in a head-on crash while trying to make a hands-free call to her husband.

Assistant Chief Constable Kerrin Wilson crashed into an oncoming car as she left work at Lincolnshire Police in December, causing it to swerve off the road and injuring the driver. Wilson, 51, of Heighington, County Durham, also received seven points on her licence.

Four motorists a day in the West Midlands were caught driving while using a mobile phone last year.

Figures, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, show 1,378 people had points on their licence for committing the offence in 2018.

However, this is a decrease of nine per cent compared to 2017, with 1,514 drivers holding points for driving while using a mobile phone in that year, or more than four a day.

In the first four months of 2019, 77 drivers have been already recorded by the DVLA as receiving points.