Road Safety Bill [HL]

I am delighted to hear what the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, just said. He stated that using a hand-held mobile phone is dangerous. The same applies to hands-free mobile phones. The person at the other end of the phone does not know what one’s driving conditions are or what else is happening on the road and therefore one’s concentration can be badly affected. Transport Research Laboratory research has shown that reaction times for drivers using mobile phones—both hands-free and hand-held—are worse than those for drivers over the blood alcohol limit. That leads to increased likelihood and severity of collision. A considerable body of research indicates that the impairment caused by hands-free mobile phones is as significant as that caused by hand-held mobile phones. The impairment occurs primarily through distraction from the conversation and not from taking a hand off the wheel. Therefore we go back to the distraction of the person at the other end of the phone. Continuing to allow hands-free mobile phone use may give the mistaken impression that that is safe driving behaviour. It is not. An evidence-led policy on mobile phones would suggest that both types of phones should be banned. It is sometimes argued that banning the use of hands-free mobiles would be unenforceable. However, even if the ban on the use of hands-free mobiles were not in force, it would still be possible for police crash investigators to determine afterwards if the driver had been engaged on a mobile phone conversation at the time. A case has already come to court following a fatal collision last year. The driver would by definition be guilty of an offence and any injured parties would automatically be able to initiate a damage claim without having to wait for the courts to decide whether the driving amounted to careless, dangerous or some other form of bad driving offence. A ban would also prevent manufacturers from promoting hands-free mobiles as being recognised in law as safe for use in cars, contrary to the evidence.