In the wake of last week’s damning report from the RAC on mobile phone usage while driving, RHA chief executive Richard Burnett (pictured) says the organisation fully supports increased penalties and harsher enforcement for all drivers using hand-helds while driving.
“As far as the road haulage sector is concerned, the RHA is urging employers and drivers to help to eradicate the practice from the industry once and for all,” states Burnett.
Likewise, he says, the RHA fully backs additional sanctions taken by traffic commissioners against professional drivers convicted of using hand-held mobiles while driving.
However, hands-free phones are in an entirely different category, he insists. “Hands-free mobiles are used in lorries as a business tool, bringing economic and environmental benefits, including reducing the mileage travelled by vehicles through improving efficiency.”
That said, Shaun Helman, TRL’s head of transport psychology, says: “Even speaking on a mobile phone can slow reaction times to sudden events, as much as being at the legal limit for blood alcohol in England.”
For Helman, though, the authorities should be concerning themselves with social media as much as with mobile phone usage while driving.
“Drink-driving was socially acceptable in the 1960s and 1970s, but now it is seen as socially unacceptable by most people,” he comments.
“The same could happen with distracted driving, although the development of new technologies may provide alternative solutions,” he continues.
“Obviously some people, some of the time, value their social connectivity more than they value their safety and the safety of others. It is this perspective that should be targeted.”