Shocking stats reveal mobile use while driving

AS MANY as 13% of drivers are still using hand-held mobile phones while at the wheel, according to a survey.

And 4% have admitted to regularly sending or reading text messages while driving, the poll by road safety charity Brake and insurance company Direct Line showed.

The number of people owning up to using hand-held mobiles at the wheel has fallen from 36% in 2006 to the current figure of 13%.

But the survey, of 1,000 drivers, also showed that the number of motorists using hands-free mobiles while driving has risen from 22% in 2006 to 38% now.

Using hand-held mobiles at the wheel has been illegal for a decade, but Brake is calling for a total ban on mobile phone use by drivers.

The survey revealed that 68% agreed that it was dangerous to use any type of mobile phone while driving, but only 36% supported a ban on hands-free mobiles, while 4% said all mobile phone use should be permitted.

Brake deputy chief executive Julie Townsend said: "It is shocking that, 10 years after the ban, one in eight drivers continues to flout the law and put lives in danger by using a hand-held mobile at the wheel.

"Just as worrying is the widespread belief that using a hands-free kit is a safe alternative. Don't kid yourself: it's not. Using a hands-free phone while driving can end and ruin lives just as surely as using a phone hand-held, and no phone call or text is worth a life.”

Direct Line's motor director Rob Miles said: "The potential for casualties from mobile phone distraction is frightening.

"Hopefully, as drivers become more aware of the dangers inherent in the use of mobile phones whilst driving, it will become as much of a social taboo as drink-driving has become in recent years."

By Peter Woodman, Press Association Transport Correspondent