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Mobile phone drivers ask not for whom the Bell tolls
Page 8
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Bad news for drivers who use mobile phones at the wheel: the TCs
are cracking down on this offence as well. Mike Jewell reports.
DRIVERS CAUGHT using mobile phones at the wheel could now face punishment from the Traffic Commissioners as well as fines of up to £2,500 and penalty points on their licences.
North Western TC Beverley Bell says she is currently liaising with all the Chief Constables in her Traffic Area to ensure that all fixed penalty offences committed by truck drivers will be referred to her in future.
Her comments came at a public inquiry where she suspended the licence belonging to truck driver Gary Smith for 11 days for using a mobile phone behind the wheel.
In fact Smith had been spotted using the phone by Bell herself: she said she had seen three drivers. all of whom are employed by Wm Armstrong of Longtown, travelling in convoy and all using phones. She remarked that she could not let such abuse go by and she had notified the drivers' employer about what she had seen.
Bell explained that the starting point for TCs in these cases was a vocational licence suspension of 14 days which could be varied up or down depending on the seriousness of the case. Denying that he had been talking to the other two drivers, Smith said it had been his daughter who had telephoned him to tell him she was no longer feeling ill. He had been verbally disciplined by his employer and told that he would be suspended or sacked if he was caught doing it again.
Making the suspension order, the TC said Smith had allowed his personal circumstances to take precedence over road safety.
The other two drivers concerned, who both live in Scotland, are due to appear before the Scottish TC Joan Aitken.