Landmark UK court case could ban fleet in-car phone use
February 24, 2009 by Matt Brogan
A landmark court case in the UK could have far reaching ramifications for fleet OH&S legislation around the globe as a company director became the first person in Britain to be convicted of careless driving over the use of a mobile phone.
The call to ban business fleet mobile phone use (be it hand held or hands free) whilst driving comes after a business woman was involved in a crash that caused the death of a fellow motorist whilst using a hands-free mobile phone.
Although found not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving, an offence that carries a possible jail sentence, she was convicted on the lesser charge of careless driving, banned from driving for 12 months and fined £2,000 ($4,500 AUD).
Similar to Australian law, only the use of a hand-held mobile phone while driving is against the law in the UK, but some motoring groups have argued that using a hands-free mobile phone is equally dangerous with UK Department for Transport research revealing that using a mobile behind the wheel makes drivers four times more likely to have a crash.
The court heard that the businesswoman had been involved in a mobile phone conversations on her hands-free mobile phone with a work colleague at the time of the accident in February 2008.
She was travelling some 30km/h below the posted speed limit when the prosecution claimed she became distracted by the conversation and veered on to the wrong side of the road and in to an oncoming car. The driver of the other vehicle died at the scene.
Although it is legal to use a hands-free mobile phone while driving, the prosecution claimed that the telephone calls distracted her enough to justify a death by dangerous driving charge.
“If a road crash occurs whether a person is using a hand-held or hands-free phone is irrelevant. The issue is whether the telephone conversation was sufficient to cause the driver to be distracted from concentrating on driving,” said Lawyer and legal advisor David Faithful. “I believe this is the first case where a conviction has been obtained as a result of a hands-free mobile phone conversation. The verdict sets a clear precedent and has a significant impact for the entire fleet industry and business community.
“It is not just drivers who could find themselves prosecuted as a consequence of road crash caused as a result of a distracting phone conversation. If the conversation is work-related then their employer’s mobile phone policy will be examined by crash investigators. If there is no policy or it is not being managed effectively then the company could also be charged with offences.”
Had the crash occurred after the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act in April 2008, then prosecutors may have considered pressing charges under that law.
Mr Faithful warned companies, “All drivers are at risk of being prosecuted if they use any mobile phone and crash. Additionally, if the call is work-related the employer could be prosecuted either because of their failure to have any mobile phone policy or failure to manage and monitor adherence to it.
“Fleets should manage and monitor as much as possible and best practice should mean that the use of any mobile phone is banned while driving. Staff should be told to switch off before they drive off or go to voicemail and listen to their messages later when parked in a safe place with the vehicle engine turned off.”
Caroline Scurr, director of the ‘Driving for Better Business’ campaign, added “This court case should serve as a warning to every private and public sector fleet in the country that driving and mobile phone use are a lethal cocktail. Every fleet should consider if their current mobile phone policies are tough enough in the light of this incident. Too many drivers are still putting themselves and others in danger for the sake of a phone call.”
Print it: 
*** Numero Uno!!!111!!!! ***
That’s pretty scary to think that someone runs even a slight risk of being charged under such a serious offense as manslaughter or murder.
I was involved in an accident here a couple of years back with someone running a red right hand turn signal while talking on their mobile phone and the police wouldn’t do them for it, even though myself, passenger and a third party witness clearly saw them with a phone to their ear at the time of the crash, I wonder how long it will be before we see a similar case here.
If this is true than we should also ban all talking in the car, including no listening to radios ect. When will we realize that you can’t cure stupid? Take away every distraction and then what?
if we ban bluetooth,we might as well ban stereo’s,sat nav’s,rear vision and makeup mirrors,smoking,talking,and b@ll scratching as well…
Salesman, I think possible distractions from listening to a radio compared to the distractions bought about by two way communications such as a telephone call are completely different.
Having said that, I still don\’t know agree with someone being charged with such a serious crime should they get into trouble while doing either.
Almost every day, I see idiots on the road yakking away on their mobile phone glued to his/her ear, while driving. Start throwing them in jail.
Definitely better ban radios and passengers too, so damned distracting!!
Agree with the sentiments of the stupidity of this. The funniest part is that Australians have basically been taught that it is impolite not to look at somebody when you are talking to them. SO when they are driving around they keep looking at their passenger whilst nattering away. I watched one lady in front of me about a month ago point at someone using their phone (hand held) and then for the next 5 km shee looked at her girlfriend and had a very excited conversation using both hads for exclamation. I can only surmise that they were talking about the phone user. When she ran into the gutter I stopeed made sure everyone was okay and politely said imagine how bad it would have been if you were looking straight ahead and talking on your phone?? Her friend half laughed. So yeah lets ban all chances of the driver talking to anyone.
have to laugh at the phot though. I can just see tyhe headlines if the truck did clean up the lady in the above situation. SHe was involved in the accident because she was on the phone!!!
Nothing to do with her driving ability, hands through the steering wheel. Or the truck not stopping at the stop sign.
Deno Says,
Salesman, I think possible distractions from listening to a radio compared to the distractions bought about by two way communications such as a telephone call are completely different.
How exactly is it different? Does one distract more than the other? What about screaming kids, winging wife, flashing traffic lights or shiny things, should they be banned? In the words of the famous Pauline Hanson “Please explain”
Frontman,
Looks like the lady in the photo above has made a few mistakes. First One appears to be she likes Toyotas. Second is she chose one with brown trim. Third, where on earth can you still buy a mobile phone with a pull up aerial?
OK, “to explain”.
Your exact words were “including no listening to radios ect.”
Some of the things you’ve mentioned in your second comment I would put in the same basket, some I wouldn’t. Screaming kids and whinging wife I would put in the same category definately, they can cause more than just simple distraction, in that you need to engage your brain and deal with them in a two-way manner. Things like flashing lights or shiny things don’t require much thought on your part other than averting your eyes and dealing with the problem at hand and moving back on to what’s going on around you.
HTH.
Deno,
“In that you need to engage your brain and deal with them in a two-way manner.”
So there are times you don’t need to “engage your brain” in a two way manner?
My point is you can never remove all distractions, although i agree you shouldn’t talk on a phone while driving unless it is hands free or blue tooth, the act of talking while driving is no mare a distraction or dangerous than anything else that might distract you while driving.
Like I said, you can not cure stupid; as long as humans are involved there will be accidents.
What’s HTH?
Salesman,
Maybe I’m just being hot, sticky and crabby but I read a certain tone to your first reply that may or may not have been there, sorry if it was the latter
HTH was an acronym on my part that was possibly a little catty meaning “Hope That Helps”.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I feel that certain things that you do in a vehicle take more thought away from driving than other things, and I believe talking on a mobile phone is one of them, as is dealing with annoying children or carrying out serious conversations with passengers and using GPS units or doing much more than pressing to change a radio station.
I just get the feeling that some commenters here seem to feel that they are good enough to think that doing these things doesn’t take anything away from their concentration on the road and what’s going on around them, and I disagree strongly that this is the case.
Cheers,
Deane.
No tone, it is the latter :)
I disagree with you on different levels of distraction and obviously felt i needed more of a description of your thoughts. That’s ok, we don’t need to agree and i don’t feel an urge to convince you to my point of view, Different strokes for different folks. Where the line is clearly drawn between what is and is not legal i am sure will be decided by so called greater minds HTH :)
Cellphones have taken on such a pathetic role in the lives of a lot of people. Working in a retail environment, I hear the most ridiculous garbage that is spoken like a girl that urgently had to call her friend and tell her that she had changed her fingernail polish colour. Another lady bought vast amounts of prepay in case her daughters had an “emergency”. When I asked how many emergencys had happened over the last few years she said NONE! I said to her – don’t you think something is not right paying out this money every month?
Can you even begin to imagine what rubbish is talked in cars?
I have made calls on a hand held in the past but have not done so lately. I will take calls using via bluetooth headset or radio but even then only if I am on a motorway.
I regularly see truck drivers making calls in 40tonne semi’s whilst negotiating roundabouts. Yep not sentence is tough enough if you’ve killed someone.
“no sentence” – I’ve just sacked the typist
I agree with you, Deano. The thought/time distraction of some tasks whilst driving is insignificant compared with others. Mobile phone usage, in either mode, is dangerous.
Salesman – tests in both the UK and USA have shown that the amount of distraction from either handheld or hands-free is pretty much the same. In fact the test reported below shows hands-free is worse than drink driving:
http://www.walk.com.au/pedestr.....PageID=303
But agree with your point “… you can not cure stupid; as long as humans are involved there will be accidents”