Use your phone at the wheel? Now you could get an instant ban, six points on your licence or £200 fine
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling will enforce a a mandatory six points meaning automatic disqualification for new drivers
THE punishment for using a mobile phone while driving is to be doubled - meaning automatic disqualification for new drivers.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling will enforce a mandatory six points and a £200 fine for anyone caught checking their devices at the wheel.
As new drivers only start with six points for their first two years on the road, a conviction will mean an instant ban.
The move is a significant toughening up of an earlier government plan to increase the punishment by just one point and an extra £50.
But it falls short of campaigning families’ calls to treat mobile phone use like drink driving and doll out automatic bans for all who are caught.
The crackdown will come alongside a new advertising blitz to ram home the danger of mobiles to make their use as socially unacceptable as not wearing a seatbelt.
The fresh action comes after a bombshell new warning from the RAC this week that smart phone use while driving has now reached “epidemic proportions”.
Mr Grayling is expected to formally announce the tougher penalty next month after hearing the views of other Cabinet ministers.
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But the Transport Secretary said last night: “As technology develops, mobile phones are common place, but we need to take responsibility for our actions.
“As drink or drug driving has become socially unacceptable, so must using mobile phones at the wheel.
“We all have a part to play in ensuring our family and friends do not use their phones while driving.”
Mr Grayling added: “I will be announcing a tougher new penalty regime shortly”.
New research by the RAC found illegal use of mobile phones by drivers is rocketing, with almost a third admitting to using a hand-held device compared to just 8% in 2014.
More than 200 people have been killed by drivers distracted by their devices in the last 10 years.
And mobile phone use was a contributory factor in 43 fatal accidents since 2014 alone.
But the number of police prosecutions for mobile phone driving offences are going down.
It has been illegal to touch a mobile phone, even with a hands free set, while at the wheel since 2003.
The fixed penalty for it was increased to £60 from £30 in 2007, and again to £100 in 2013.