Give us a steer
I WAS giving my nephew a lift home at the weekend when we narrowly missed getting T-boned by another car.
The driver, pulling out of a junction, slammed his brakes on just in time to avoid smashing into my passenger door.
He held his hand up and mouthed “Sorry” before driving off – still talking on the mobile phone clamped to his ear with the other hand.
I didn’t get his registration because I was ranting about moronic bloody drivers on their sodding phones being lethal weapons.
My nephew waited until I’d calmed down and then said: “Pot and kettle, Rach.” And he had a point. Because I’m ashamed to say he had, in the past, seen me using my phone at the wheel too.
I only, truly, came to my senses after interviewing the family of a woman killed by a texting driver.
And so I’m one of the 26 per cent of drivers prepared to admit to being moronic. But what about you? Have you ever “just sent a quick text at the lights” or “made a 30 second call” to tell the childminder you’re stuck in traffic?
Because you’re a good driver and you know when it’s safe to do it, don’t you? Far too many drivers are in denial. They tut- tut at Gary Neville, the ex-England star caught driving, phone in hand, on the M60 this week – but sneakily continue to do the same.
Addicted
Which is why 22 people were killed and 99 seriously injured in accidents in phone- drive accidents in 20150. And why the penalties have just doubled to a £200 fine and six licence points.
But we have become so reliant on our mobile phones that checking them every few seconds is almost a reflex action.
AA president Edmund King says motorists are “addicted” to them and we all need to “go cold turkey – by turning off the phone and putting it in the glove box before each journey”.
But it only takes one relapse for a phone addict driver to take a life. So the Department for Transport urgently needs to consider other options.
Like asking all smartphone manufacturers to include “drive safe” modes s i milar t o “f l i ght modes” to block calls, texts and emails.
Or working with car makers on technology that will automatically stop phones working when a vehicle is in motion.
Surely there is some device to block internet and phone signals once a car is on the move?
So that all motori sts keep their hands on the wheels, their brains in gear and death off the roads.