Skip to footer

Britain gets serious about distracted driving

Britain is taking steps to discourage texting while driving by boosting fines and potentially revoking licences.

|
ZUMA Press/Newscom/File
A women texting on a cell phone while driving on a Los Angeles freeway (Jul 21, 2009).

The problem of texting and driving isn't limited to the U.S. – not by a long shot. Britain is taking steps to discourage the practice by boosting fines and potentially revoking licences.

Currently, British drivers face fines of £100 ($130) and three points on their licenses if they're caught using a mobile phone behind the wheel. As of next year, those penalties will double to £200 and six points. New drivers could be forced to re-take their exams.

On the second offense, drivers could go court and be ordered to pay £1000 ($1,300).  Depending on the circumstances, the driver might also have her license suspended for up to six months.

Interestingly, the law won't affect another part of the UK, Northern Ireland, which will keep its penalties set at a £60 fine and three points.

Why now?

It's estimated that as many as one-third of all UK motorists regularly use their phones while driving, and that number is on the increase. 

While that figure might seem substantial, it pales in comparison to stats from the US. Surveys published earlier this year show that up to 70 percent of Americans talk on mobile phones while driving, and 42 percent are happy to read texts (though only 32 percent say that they've responded to texts or emails while driving). 

Among U.S. teens, the figures are even more alarming: even though 95 percent of teens know that using apps while driving is dangerous, 68 percent admit that they do so.

Is that because some states have far looser laws to prohibit texting and driving?* Not enough research has been done to say.

Will the UK's new laws reduce mobile phone use by drivers even further? We'll let you know when the statistics come in.

* Arizona and Montana don't legislate the practice at all, and in Texas and Missouri, it's only applied in certain cases. In Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota it's classed as a secondary offense, meaning that drivers can't be ticketed for doing it unless they're pulled over for a primary offense, like speeding or reckless driving.

This story originally appeared on The Car Connection.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Britain gets serious about distracted driving
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2016/0920/Britain-gets-serious-about-distracted-driving
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe