Since the offence became endorseable earlier this year, the early indications are that the number of convictions and fixed penalties for driving whilst using mobile phones has continued to soar with figures reaching over a thousand within the first six months, although accurate statistics are unlikely to be available until next year.
The Road Safety Act 2006 has introduced other increased penalties with further proposals being considered. It all means that disqualifications for drivers under the penalty points system will become far more common in the future. The risk of being banned will increase even for drivers who are generally perfectly law abiding.
Professional drivers such as HGV and PSV licence holders are now punished twice for offences of driving whilst using a mobile phone. In addition to the points, discretionary disqualifications (which are often considered in the case of vocational drivers) and fines, police forces now routinely pass their details to the Traffic Area Office and the Traffic Commissioners are now hauling drivers before them for public inquiry in larger numbers than ever before for disciplinary action to be taken. A very clear message is being sent out to the transport industry as drivers are consistently now having their vocational licences suspended by anything from 7 to 28 days, depending on the circumstances of the offence and offender.
For drivers this can mean temporary loss of livelihood and income, and for their employers it can mean loss of staff and vehicles for the duration of the suspension. This is costly for all involved and places pressure on employers to implement and enforce effective mobile phone and driving policies. Many employers have these in place but either don’t enforce them or don’t realise that they’re simply inadequate. For example, pulling over at the road side to answer a phone but leaving the engine running can still land you trouble. Operators who need advice about this are welcome to contact Sean Joyce directly.
Driving often represents the most risky work related activity for most businesses and their employees and the Department of Transport estimate that around a third of accidents on the road involve people making a work related journey. Current Health and Safety at Work legislation is an effective weapon available to prosecuting authorities with harsh penalties for employers and staff who cause serious injury or death in a work related accident. Offences of “causing” or “permitting” can also drag an employer into criminal proceedings due to the misdemeanours of their employees.
But there are further changes afoot that employers must now be prepared for. The new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act will make it easier, from next year, to prosecute companies for gross failures in health and safety systems and breaches of their duty of care in respect of employees and other road users killed in road crashes.
Currently, use of mobile phones in cases of Causing Death by Dangerous Driving is treated as a serious aggravating feature that can add to the length of a prison sentence. However, as the law stands now, this involves evidence that the driving fell far below the standard expected and that this was obviously so. But there are now proposals to introduce a new offence of causing death by Due Care that will also carry a prison term. This would be a much easier offence to prove as the standard of driving need only fall slightly below the standard and need only be for a split second. This means that momentary lapses of concentration, or the kind of accidental mistake that every driver is prone to, could lead to loss of licence and a prison term. Accidents involving mobile phones resulting in a fatality will almost always fall into this category of offence.
If you or one of your drivers has an accident whilst on their phone and kills another road user then you must be able to demonstrate from the outset that your organisation has effective health and safety and occupational road risk management policies in place. Otherwise your business could face significant problems, bringing both a serious criminal prosecution with threat of prison sentence for those responsible and significant compensation claims from the victims.
