Posts Tagged ‘Texting and driving’

Merseyside drivers fined £1.2m for using mobiles

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

mobile-phone-drivingIn the past year, drivers in Merseyside were fined more than £1.2m for using their mobile phones while driving.

The Liverpool Daily Post reported that between April and September this year, police gave out tickets to more than 20,000 drivers for using handheld mobiles while in charge of their vehicles.

Even a driving instructor was among those hit with an £60 penalty and three points on their licence. The driving instructor was teaching a learner driver at the time!

Merseyside Police warned that the number of killed or seriously injured on the road could potentially increase unless they enforced the law. The cause of accidents while driving is not recorded, so there is no available data for how many people may have perished on UK roads because of mobile use.

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Posted in Road Safety, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Texting & Driving film gets BBC TV premiere

Friday, October 30th, 2009

COW, the graphic texting & driving public information film which we discussed on the Latics blog in August is being given its TV premiere by BBC Wales next week after becoming a global hit on the internet.

The film stars young actors from south Wales and shows a teenager killing four people in a crash when she sends a text from her mobile phone whilst driving.

Filmmaker Peter Watkins-Hughes produced it for Gwent Police as an educational tool for young drivers.  It will be broadcast for the first time on BBC Two Wales on Monday 2nd November at 10pm (Sky Channel 991).

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Posted in Driving Law, Events, Road Safety | 2 Comments »

Shocking new texting & driving film released

Monday, August 17th, 2009

A shocking new video has been made for school pupils in an attempt to reduce crashes caused by drivers texting whilst driving.

The short 30-minute film called ‘COW’ shows Cassie Cowan, a teenage girl, killing four people as a result of her using her mobile phone to send a text.  A clip from the film is shown below…

It includes footage of all the emergency services attending the crash scene, including the air ambulance, police and firefighters.

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Posted in Driving Law, Road Safety | 11 Comments »

Texting whilst driving (or ‘txtn yl drvn’)

Monday, May 4th, 2009

Today, the goverment launches it’s latest campaign against drivers texting whilst on the move.  The Think! campaign is especially targetted at young drivers, 30% of whom admit to texting at the wheel.

The Department for Transport noted that using a mobile phone at the wheel is considered the second most unacceptable driving behaviour among motorists with 93% agreeing that texting while driving is dangerous. However, 12% of all motorists admit to texting while driving.

Whilst online this morning, I came across this unbelivable video from CNN, showing a bus driver, driving disabled passengers in Texas, crashing into stationary traffic whilst texting:

The new radio campaign features a driver’s voice spelling out a text message followed by the harrowing sound of a car crash.  Click here to listen to it.

An online ‘driving challenge’ game is also available, which demonstrates how using a mobile at the wheel can completely distract the driver.  Try it out for yourself!

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Posted in Driving Law, Industry News, Road Safety | No Comments »