Collision course

Published on 24/11/2012 00:00

I have just read the article about people using ­mobile phones while driving (23 ­November).

As a driving instructor I spend most of the day on the road, and I have witnessed a catalogue of driving faults caused by the driver’s attention being more on the phone than on the road.

The problem is that most drivers have an over-inflated opinion of their own driving skills, gauged mainly on their ability to manoeuvre the car while holding a mobile phone. The real issue is the total lack of concentration which is required safely to navigate the roads of today.

As your report intimated, three penalty points and a £60 fine is totally inadequate.

The lack of concentration is akin to that occasioned by alcohol, and that is not tolerated by the majority of the general 
public.

I would propose that an ­offender’s licence be revoked as soon as they are caught with a mobile phone.

A year later they could be 
eligible to apply for a provisional driving licence.

They could then sit the theory test, which forms part of the driving test. If they pass they would become eligible to sit the driving test.

Ron McIntyre

Trinity Way

Edinburgh