In the UK drivers caught using a mobile phone face an on-the-spot fixed fine of £100 and three penalty points added their licence – with an accumulation of 12 points over a three year period leading to a disqualification.
If an offender is taken to a UK Magistrates’ Court, drivers can face a maximum fine of £1,000.
In comparison, there are no fixed penalties for Islanders who go before a parish hall enquiry and the fine for a first time offender does not usually exceed £75.
And according to one St Saviour centenier, large numbers who attend parish halls are given ‘words of advice’ and are not penalised at all.
The £500 maximum fine that can be issued in the Magistrate’s Court is also half that of the UK, but there is a possibility of a short disqualification and an endorsement being made to the offender’s licence.
Figures obtained from an information request show that in 2014 only three per cent of motorists caught in possession of a mobile phone were taken to court.
Of the 372 recorded cases last year, 361 were dealt with at parish hall level, with the remaining 11 being dealt with at the Magistrate’s Court.
And following the release of the data, former Transport Minister Kevin Lewis says that motorists who re-offend should face much steeper penalties than they currently do.
‘Using a mobile phone while driving is a serious offence and could cause a major accident. There is absolutely no need for it – all phones have a ring back facility which means you can call back when it’s safe to do so, so there is no excuse really.’
‘When I was minister our whole approach to road safety was being reviewed, including the approach towards mobile phones. I would like to see higher fines for repeat offenders, perhaps somewhere around £1,000 mark. I would also like to see more repeat offenders banned. If you have someone who is continuously using their phone, taking away their licence is the only alternative,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Philip Blake, Jersey’s road safety officer, has said that he was concerned about the number of Islanders using their phones and that he will soon be launching a campaign to specially target the issue.
‘People who are using their phones will be distracted and are likely to be doing things such as varying their speed, mounting the pavement and veering around the road.
‘We believe that accidents that happen in Jersey tend not to be concentrating as much as they could do because they are so familiar with the roads. They probably use the same roads every day and because of that they are not giving the attention that they might do and that’s part of the reason why we have the amount of accidents we do on the Island.’
PAUL Newman says he remembers January 5 ‘like other people remember 9/11’.
It was the day his mobile phone rang and he heard his younger sister Beth sobbing down the line.
Their sister Ellen had been killed by a car which had mounted the pavement she was walking on in Manchester.
She left behind two grown-up children and three grandchildren.
Paul also says that it was the day that his family – ten brothers and sisters, suddenly reduced to nine – started to fall apart. ‘When that driver killed my sister, I think he killed my whole family,’ he said.
The family heard that a witness had seen the driver talking on a mobile phone moments before he veered off the road and hit Ellen, but this was never proven conclusively.
The driver pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court to driving without due care and attention and he was banned from driving for a year and fined £300.
Paul and his family were not even there to see the man dealt with, having been told that the case would be adjourned for a later date.
To this day the driver has never even said sorry to them. The family’s disbelief and anger at the leniency of the sentence became a simmering resentment and desire for retribution that has since caused the siblings to fall out.
Some have wanted to take the law into their own hands – including Paul. He was arrested after he hired four lorries and deliberately blocked the motorway near Manchester Airport to make the family’s point about court sentencing policy.
The police officers, aware of the reason for the protest, shook his hand and let him go without charge.
He became determined to turn Ellen’s legacy into a positive one and in 2006 he helped set up the Hands Off campaign launched jointly by the Jersey Evening Post and Jersey Telecom to persuade drivers to abide by the law which bans them from using a phone while driving.
His determination to re-educate drivers stemmed from his grief but also his amazement at just how many motorists continue to defy the law, apparently unaware of the dangers that they are posing to themselves and others – never mind the fact that they could end up in court.
‘At first I was angry towards the driver because he had taken my sister, but before the case I believed in the justice system and I expected he would pay a price for what he did.
‘The system fails victims, that’s how I see things. The perpetrators of the crime get the support, not the victims – in fact they get insulted. I completely lost faith.’
JEP reporter Michael Morris tested a driving simulator to see how difficult it was to drive while using a mobile phone:
THE idea of the driving simulator is to show how difficult it is to drive while distracted while using a phone.
Well, judging by my first attempt, the phone wasn’t the problem, as within seconds I’d somehow managed to plough the car into a lamp post before I’d even reached for my phone as I struggled to get to grips with the technology.
The simulator resembles a video game, complete with driver’s seat and steering wheel (imagine Grand Theft Auto, but with strict adherence to the Highway Code), and it took a few attempts before I managed to come to terms with the machine.
Once I became more comfortable with driving on the virtual roads, I was encouraged to hold my phone to my ear, while Paul, who was stood by my side, had a conversation as if he was on the phone.
I managed to keep control for about a minute, before sailing through a red light, which immediately brought up a ‘serious warning’, that ended the simulation.
The simulator was good fun, although didn’t feel particularly like driving a real car, it did, however, succeed in getting its message across.
