54 drivers caught using mobile phones
3:04pm Wednesday 28th February 2007 in Your Town By Rob Devey
MORE than 50 motorists were caught using their mobile phones while driving yesterday - the first day tough new penalties were introduced.
Offenders now face a fine of £60, doubled from £30, and three penalty points.
And despite police warnings to motorists, 54 drivers in Bolton and Wigan were caught either talking on their phones or sending text messages yeterday.
Two drivers, a man and a woman, were also issued with a £80 fixed penalty tickets for threatening officers in Wigan.
Seven officers from the road policing unit patrolled the streets of Bolton and Wigan from 9am-6pm, some acting as plain clothes "spotters".
Sgt John Brennan said: "We caught a roughly equal mix of men and women, all of working age.
"There were lots of different types of people, from HGV and white van drivers to people in their own cars sending texts to say they were on their way home from work.
"Quite a few people we pulled over said they would deny the offence until we told them they had been seen by a plain clothes officer."
Sgt Brennan said officers had been keen to show they would be vigorously enforcing the new penalties.
"We want to show motorists that this is a priority for us and wanted to send a strong message out from the start.
"It's not something we have done for just one day.
"We will carry on enforcing this vigorously because we think it is long overdue. Using a phone while driving is a distraction which can cause accidents and claim lives."
He said he thought the tougher penalties would prove a deterrent.
"The publicity has deterred a lot of drivers and made people more aware of the dangers," he said.
A photographer from The Bolton News yesterday spotted five drivers using phones between 4.30pm and 5.30pm in the area of Manchester Road, Bridgeman Place and Lower Bridgeman Street in Bolton.
On Monday, we spotted eight drivers using phones in just 30 minutes in Bridgeman Place.
Anyone given a £60 fixed penalty ticket by police has 28 days to pay the fine, but can instead elect to go to court where the maximium fine is £1,000 for car drivers and £2,500 for drivers of vans, lorries, buses and coaches.
Yesterday, Home Secretary John Reid said that he was "open" to the idea of confiscating mobile phones from drivers caught using them at the wheel, as a stricter punishment.
Figures show that 84 per cent of the UK population own a mobile phone - and that 74,000 fixed-penalty notices were issued in 2004 for illegal use of a phone while driving In 2005, 13 people were killed and more than 400 injured in crashes involving drivers using hand-held phones.
Every day 500,000 motorists are estimated to use a hand-held phone while driving and recent Department of Transport figures show that, while more than 90 per cent of people agree with the mobile phone law, around 20 per cent of drivers admit to breaking it.
