Campaigners have urged Scottish motorists to switch off their mobile phones when driving in a bid to improve general road safety.
Statistics reveal that almost 85,000 drivers in Scotland have been given points for talking on their phones while driving. These figures suggest that current measures are not effective enough, road safety charity Brake said, as reported by Herald Scotland.
Around 10% of these motorists have at least six points on their licences, the data shows. Even more worryingly, three in five Scottish children are being driven by motorists who regularly use their mobile phones, and three in four children report seeing drivers talking on their phones outside their schools or homes, suggesting that children’s safety is also under threat.
The risk of using mobile phones behind the wheel is highlighted by the fact that 98% of motorists were unable to divide their attention between looking at the road and at their devices at the same time without having their driving skills affected by the action.
According to Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive of Brake, the increasing number of people owning smartphones and the growing dependency on the devices make it difficult for many people to switch off even for a short period of time. However, using them also poses serious threat to drivers, passengers, and pedestrians, as they often distract motorists’ attention and contribute to road traffic accidents that sometimes have fatal consequences.