Courts must crack down on the mobile motorists
Are you thinking what she’s thinking?
THE number of motorists caught using their mobile phones behind the wheel has almost doubled in a year. I’m not surprised by this, but I am terrified. A new generation of drivers is now on our roads, doing their worst; a generation who grew up with mobiles practically glued to their hands and, as a consequence, have the attention span of gnats.
A court learned this week that in the space of 23 minutes, prison officer Jamie Bellerby, 27, read 23 WhatsApp messages, sent one voice note, received three Facebook messages, took three incoming calls and made several outgoing calls — all while she was driving at 75mph on a motorway.
This resulted in a multiple car crash that killed lorry driver Stuart Murphy, 39, from Huddersfield, and injured four others.
She crawled from the wreckage clutching her phone. Although she had tried to delete incriminating evidence and was found guilty of dangerous driving, she was only given a two-year community order. Why? The court agreed she had a ‘stressful day at work’ before causing carnage on the roads.
Meanwhile, a 26-year-old from Teesside will be in the High Court later this month, charged with causing a multi-car collision which left two people hospitalised and resulted in huge traffic delays.
It is alleged that she was texting and holding her phone in front of her for one mile on a busy road. Perhaps she’ll get a pat on the head and a community order, too.
Driver distraction is a major problem on UK roads. But until courts start taking it seriously, more deaths are inevitable.