Queen & Country
I Addressing the death of Margaret Luxton Gabby Criscuolo
Margaret Luxton was one of two women who died in May 2014 as a result of a coach crash. The coach driver, a man using a hands-free mobile phone when he crashed, was sentenced to five years in jail, a minor charge for such damaging consequences. Terry Luxton, the victim’s son, stated that; “we need tougher legislation for drivers using mobile phones while driving- it should be the same as drink driving”. He is not alone in this, with many people holding the view that the two crimes should be given equal punishment.
10
PREVIEW
n the UK, the legal limit for driving is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Driving whilst above this limit results in a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment, a fine of up to £5,000 and a minimum of a twelve month driving ban. Causing death by careless driving, when under the influence of alcohol, carries a maximum penalty of fourteen years imprisonment, an unlimited fine, a minimum of a two year driving ban and the requirement to pass an extended driving test in order to legally drive in the future. The Institute of Advanced Motorists calculated that a conviction of this type could cost between £20,000£50,000, owing to fines, solicitor fees, an increase in car insurance and the possibility of losing one’s job. Comparably, the fixed penalty notice for those using a hand-held phone whilst driving is much lower, consisting of three penalty points and a fine. In more extreme circumstances, people are taken to court and are disqualified from driving, with a fine of up to £,1000. This amount can surely not suffice for the loss of a life and the pain that it inflicts on the people around the victim. Thus, we are forced to question: what price can we place on a life? Statistics suggest that the danger associated with driving whilst using a phone is greater than driving whilst intoxicated. Brain scans have confirmed that talking on the phone makes a driver’s reaction time 30% slower than driving with a blood alcohol level of 80mg per 100ml of blood. Also, a large-scale study found that individuals who drive while sending or reading text messages are 6 times more likely to cause an accident than an intoxicated driver. What is more, Human Factors & Ergonomics state that texting whilst driving slows your brake reaction speed by 18%. This coupled with research conducted by the VA Tech Transportation Institute, exemplifying that texting while driving is the equivalent of driving
blind for five seconds, can suggest that driving while using a phone is more detrimental . With this in mind, it is unsurprising that motorist, Hoden Auden, killed a toddler, despite only travelling at 5mph when on his phone. Auden was not given a jail sentence: in the words of Namin Nur, the victim’s mother, we must ask; “how can this be justice?”. Distressingly, evidence suggests that phones present a risk of danger due to addictions and habits. More than 40% of those who admitted to texting whilst driving referred to it as a ‘habit’. With developments in technology, society is inevitably becoming increasingly obsessed with phones, instinctually responding to messages immediately and checking social media repeatedly. Speeding driver, Danny Warby killed an off-duty police officer, by responding to a text despite having only been driving for two minutes. Warby, who was sentenced to six years in jail, opened the message instantly after receiving it. Tougher penalties are therefore required so that people attempt to break this habit rather than dismissing it as harmless. Since when did “habits” become a fair excuse under the law? Additionally, the effects of using a phone while driving and drink driving are closely related. The National Highway and Transportation Administration states that texting while driving is the same as driving after “downing four beers”. The Administration also found that the impairments associated with both are almost indistinguishable: slower reactions, increased stopping distance, poorer judgement of speed and distance, reduced field of vision and difficulty controlling speed and lane position. In both circumstances, drivers will also break more sharply in response to hazards, thus increasing the risk of rear-end crashes. Laura Jane Thomas was killed by lorry driver, Ian Glover, after he hit her car while looking at images of women on an explicit dating site.
Glover was only jailed for five years. Again one questions whether this is justice for the family of the victim -with such similar effects, surely the punishments should be equalised at the least? RAC road safety spokesman, Pete Williams stated that “drivers have little or no confidence that they will get caught when breaking these laws”. Identifiably, this complacency derives from conviction rates for driving while using a phone having halved between 2010 and 2014 to 16,012; perhaps due to the Tory cuts to police budgets. It is apparent from this that the current law is not a deterrent, and as demonstrated by the change in drink driving laws, increasing the penalty will be of substantial effect. This is further stressed though photographs collected by the Mirror which caught 21 drivers using mobiles at the wheel while travelling at speeds of up to 70mph. It is also notable that when travelling at 55mph, an offender will drive without looking at the road, at least the length of a football pitch. The dangers associated with this make a change in the punishments for a crime of this type imperative. Conclusively, statistics strongly favour the increase in penalties for driving using a phone, as do the hundreds of tragic cases relating to offenders using a phone while driving: Jacy Good, for example, was driving home after her graduation, when a teenager, distracted by his phone, turned left at a red light, causing a fully loaded tractor-trailer to swerve and hit her car. Good’s parents were pronounced dead at the scene and she attended rehab in order to relearn basic actions. It is clear from this that driving whilst using a phone can destroy people’s lives and is just as dangerous as drink driving, if not more. The current law alone is not a deterrent; therefore, the best solution is to increase the penalties of using a phone while driving to the same as those associated with drink driving.
PREVIEW
11