Balancing safety with efficiency
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Two court cases involving fatal accidents have highlighted the danger of using mobile phones in vehicles. Should hauliers ban their use at the wheel, and would efficiency be damaged as a result?
by Guy Sheppard
• Owner-driver Robert Hammond has reason to he incensed when he sees other drivers using mobile phones on the motorway: his daughter was killed on the M8 in Glasgow by a 38-tonner when the driver was momentarily distracted while trying to put a mobile phone back into its holder.
"You see some drivers writing down messages while on the phone and the only control they have of the vehicle is with their elbow," says Hammond, based in Stoke-on-Trent. Two months ago the driver in this case, a part-time employee of Cool Chain in Rochdale, was fined £250 and given six penalty points after he admitted careless driving.
Last week a businessman was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving after being involved in a head-on colli sion with a van, killing its driver. A court heard that he had been listening to his message service seconds before the accident in Bracknell, Berks. He is due to be sentenced later this month.
Dave Rogers, road safety adviser at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, says public concern about the issue is rising rapidly: "Our stance is that 100% of a driver's attention should be on driving and using a mobile phone whether hand-held or handsfree has the potential to distract drivers," he says. "You are still thinking about what you've been told or asked for several seconds after ringing off."
Superintendent Des McGarr, divisional commander of Essex Police traffic division, says that according to Crown Prosecution Service guidelines, using a mobile phone while driving constitutes careless driving. That could easily be aggravated by other features into dangerous driving—and you don't have to have a crash to be guilty.
But operators say they have to balance safety considerations with efficiency needs.
Kevin Pendergast, head of fleet management for Lane Group, says its 200 drivers are only given hands-free phones and are instructed not to make calls while driving.
He adds: "The phone has become part of the tools to do the job. It would be very difficult to say you must not receive calls when driving."
McGarr is unimpressed: "How efficient is it when a driver has a truck go off the road while using a mobile phone? It takes no wit at all to instruct drivers that three rings on the mobile means they should prepare to receive a call within the next five minutes so they can get off the road beforehand."