Ignore that mobile call

The mobile phone has evolved to become so much more than a way of making calls. These days, our phones are at the centre of our lives.

From managing banking to emailing, to checking social media, it can all be done on the handsets to which we spend the days glued.

But an obsession with one’s phone can become dangerous.

Lorry driver David Shields was jailed for five years yesterday for killing a women whose car he hit while he checked his mobile.

Missionary worker Yvonne Blackman succumbed, weeks after the crash, to the injuries she sustained. Her death – absolutely pointless, completely avoidable – leaves a gaping hole in the lives of her family.

We are sure Mr Shields will deeply regret for a very long time the 18 seconds he spent looking at his phone rather than the road.

But it is right that he be punished severely. Mr Shields may not have set out to kill Ms Blackman on the A75 in February of last year but his reckless negligence had the most devastating effects. When behind the wheel, the only safe response to a ringing mobile phone is to ignore it.