A survey from What Car? has revealed the shocking statistic that over one-in-three drivers still use a mobile phone when driving, however the true figure may be higher still as 93% of motorists say they have seen someone else using a mobile phone while driving in the past seven days.
Despite tougher penalties for offenders, including the threat of jail if a driver is prosecuted for dangerous driving, there has been no drop in the number admitting to using a mobile phone; in fact, over 10% of the poll participants admitted to using their mobile while driving that very day.
What Car? have run similar polls since 2005 and during this period only a slight drop of 6% has been recorded in the numbers of people not using their phone while driving.
Steve Fowler, What Car? editor, commented: ‘The message is obviously not getting through – if you use a handheld mobile phone while driving, you may end up killing yourself or others.
‘Research has shown that using a mobile phone at the wheel could be more dangerous than drink driving. Yet it seems you don’t have to travel far to see someone who’s oblivious to the dangers – they’re all too easy to spot by their bad driving habits.’