Drivers face jail terms for using hand-held mobile phones

MOTORISTS who use hand-held mobile phones face heavy fines or prison sentences under new legislation set to come into effect next summer.

The law, designed to crack down on a habit road safety experts believe to be as dangerous as drink driving, will allow judges send repeat offenders to prison.

Jail terms of up to three months could be imposed on motorists caught using hand-held phones a third time.

Under the law, first offenders face a fine of 1€90 and one penalty point, rising to €435 and three penalty points for those caught a second time.

These are much tougher sanctions than a similar ban being imposed from December 1 in Britain where the fine for first offenders is only £30 (€43).

The new law replaces a proposal two years ago when the then junior Environment Minister Bobby Molloy signed regulations banning hand-held phones.

However, the gardaí said it would prove impossible to implement them and the Attorney General advised that primary legislation was needed to copper-fasten the ban against challenges in the courts.

Transport Minister Seamus Brennan hopes to push the bill through the Dáil early in the New Year and, according to a department spokesman, it should be on the statute books by early summer.

The spokesman said the issue of whether taxi drivers or the emergency services would be exempt from the legislation was currently being “teased out”.

The decision to impose a jail sentences on motorists caught using hand-held phones a third time has been welcomed by the Automobile Association.

“I know it may seem rather severe. But if someone persists in recklessly engaging in what is clearly a dangerous practice, it is no harm to have the option of jail on the statute books to be invoked at the discretion of the judge,” said spokesman Conor Faughnan.

The gardaí have also said they would also welcome stiffer penalties. A spokesman said: “There have been quite a number of accidents where people were on their mobile phone and were not concentrating.”

Hands-free phones will be exempt from fines or penalty points despite fears that they pose almost as much of a risk to other road users. Brake, the British road safety charity, wants all car phones banned and have accused phone companies of ruthlessly promoting the sales of hand-free kits.

The new legislation is expected to see a huge increase in sales of hand-free kits in Ireland. Carphone Warehouse has already launched a sales campaign in Britain and is expected to do the same here in advance of the new legislation.

Brake’s leader Mary Williams said: “Phone companies, including Carphone Warehouse, are perhaps unwittingly placing profits before lives by continuing to sell hands-free kits and using the ban on hand-held phones as an advertising opportunity.”