New drivers using smartphones could lose their licence

The new penalties reflect this and show that using a phone while driving won’t be tolerated.

He had been distracted by scrolling through music on his mobile phone and was jailed for ten years.

It was launched a year ago after a shocking string of fatal accidents involving motorists who were phoning, texting or checking social media while driving.

“Because you see people driving around using their mobile phones all the time and you see very few people being prosecuted for it at the moment so I don’t know how they can actually carry it out”.

The law also applies to those riding a motorcycle.

The fixed penalty used to be £30 but in 2007 it was raised to £60.

For those who are caught twice, will face magistrates’ court, disqualification and fines of up to £1,000. It is as inexcusable as drink driving’.

Previously, drivers caught on their phones received three penalty points.

But it had little effect on drivers who flout the law every day in the mistaken belief that they are somehow immune from any consequences. New drivers, within two years of passing their test, will risk having their licence revoked, and lorry or bus drivers can be suspended if caught.

The new powers have also been welcomed by Ron Hogg, Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioner for County Durham and Darlington, who has long campaigned for tougher penalties for mobile phone use.

Ron Hogg, Police, Crime and Victims Commissioner for County Durham and Darlington, said “These new penalties are a real deterrent to risky driving”.

Tomasz Kroker, aged 30, has since been jailed for 10 years after pleading guilty to four counts of causing death by unsafe driving.

During this time 11 people were killed and 195 injured, while 29,564 tickets were issued to drivers caught using a mobile device.

In December the Department for Transport announced it was to consider introducing some form of phone-disabling technology to stop people using their phone behind the wheel.

But 31 per cent of motorists in a poll admitted they had committed the offence, compared to eight per cent in 2014. Gary Rae, Brake’s campaigns director, has urged the government to reconsider the reduction in the number of road traffic police and to “make roads policing a national priority”. I was in the vehicle with my best friend, who was driving, and we were at a stop light.

“This new law will inevitably impact fleet operators, so we advise fleet managers to invest in technology which can directly and indirectly impact on reducing the risk”.

For new drivers, it could mean they automatically lose their licence.