Almost 10,000 drivers have been caught twice for being distracted while driving, including using a mobile phone, in the last four years.
More than 600 people were caught three times and one driver five times, data from a freedom of information request to the DVLA shows. Road safety charity Brake says the findings show authorities are not taking the offence “seriously enough”. The government says it is pushing ahead with plans for tougher penalties. The data refers to the number of drivers who have received CU80 endorsements in the past four years, which is how long the DVLA keeps its records.
CU80 endorsements cover a range of breaches in requirements regarding the control of a vehicle, and include being distracted by a mobile phone. Although 238,694 people have been caught driving while distracted at least once, just 284 have received a ban as a result, the DVLA said. The findings come in the same week that Tomasz Kroker was jailed for 10 years for causing a crash which killed a mother and four children. He was filmed using his mobile phone just before his lorry ploughed into a queue of vehicles on the A34 in Berkshire.
How many times drivers have received points for CU80 offences from 2012-2015:
Once – 228,301 drivers
Twice – 9,722 drivers
Three times – 638 drivers
Four times – 32 drivers
Five times – one driver
The data for 2012-2015, released to the Emma Barnett programme on BBC Radio 5 live, shows the total number of drivers being caught is falling: in 2014, 68,409 motorists received a CU80 endorsement, however in 2015 this fell to 42,950 drivers. According to campaigners, this is caused by a reduction in the number of road policing officers in the UK. The total number of traffic officers in the police dropped from 5,635 at the end of March 2010 to 4,356 by the end of March 2014, according to Brake.
Gary Rae, campaigns director for Brake, described the statistics as “astonishing and worrying”.
“It’s further evidence that the authorities are not taking illegal use of mobiles behind the wheel seriously enough. We need tougher sanctions on drivers who use their devices when driving, and that includes increasing both the fines and penalty points,” he said.
The current punishment for using a mobile phone while driving is three penalty points, but in September the government announced it was looking at plans to double the penalty to six points. A spokesman for the Department for Transport reiterated the government’s desire to push ahead with the new plans.