Prime Minister urges Brits into shaming family and friends to never use mobile phones at the wheel as habit becomes ‘socially unacceptable’
The PM's appeal comes after trucker Tomasz Kroker was jailed for ten years for killing a family
THERESA May yesterday urged people to shame friends and loved ones into never using mobile phones at the wheel.
The PM said the habit had to become “socially unacceptable” just like drink-driving.
She warned that far too many people are still ignorant of the huge risk they take just by glancing at their phone — and how it can bring terrible tragedy in “a fleeting moment”.
Mrs May, in Bangalore on the last day of her trip to India, said: “A moment’s distraction can wreck the lives of others for ever.
“Just as we have made it socially unacceptable to drink and drive, so we need to do the same with using a mobile phone while driving.
“We need people to realise the tragedy they can inflict in a fleeting moment and stop using a mobile when their eyes and mind should be on the road and their hands on the wheel.”
The PM’s call comes after trucker Tomasz Kroker was jailed for ten years for killing a family by ploughing into stationary traffic on the A34 in Berkshire.
In-cab video showed him trying to change music on his mobile.
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The Government yesterday confirmed it will increase the penalty for phone-driving from three to six points.
And Mrs May pledged a crackdown on serious offenders, insisting: “The sentence should fit the crime for those who kill or injure on our roads, and it should deter others from causing harm just for a call or a text.”
Last month The Sun revealed the number of drivers fined for using mobiles has plummeted.
Just 16,900 got fixed penalties in 2015 compared with 123,100 in 2011.
In ten years, more than 200 people have been killed by drivers distracted by phones.
The RAC said mobile use had been allowed to “sweep across the country largely unchallenged”.