VIDEO: Driving on the phone - what effect does it have?

Earlier this week I spent an afternoon pressing the button on a pelican crossing repeatedly and throwing a football out in front of cars... no I wasn't having a breakdown, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Road Safety Partnership were putting on a press event with Alconbury Driving Centre to demonstrate the dangers of driving whilst on the phone.

Reporters took turns negotiating a course on Alconbury airfield, in a dual-controlled car with instructor Paul Staple, whilst talking or texting on their mobile phone. Road Safety Officers from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough set up a series of scenarios, including lights changing as the driver approached and a ball bouncing out in front of them, to see how the reporters reacted.

Here's how Heart Cambridgeshire reporter Tom Horn got on...

You can also read Cambridge News' Jennie Baker's experience.

The Facts

• Last year Cambridgeshire Police reported 2,535 drivers were caught using a mobile phone while driving, in 2011 that figure was 2,431.
• You are four times more likely to crash if you use a mobile phone while you are driving.
• If caught using a hand-held mobile phone behind the wheel, you will receive a £60 fine and three penalty points on your licence.
• The punishments for careless or dangerous driving while using a phone include up to two years in prison.
• Using a smartphone for social networking slows a driver’s reaction times by 37.6 per cent.
• Reaction times are slowed by 37.4 per cent by texting.
• Cannabis slows reaction times by 21 per cent.
• The reaction times of a driver with alcohol levels at the legal limit are slowed by 12.5 per cent.

Is your child car seat correctly fitted? Checks in Cambridgeshire find only 47% are!

Cambridgeshire County Council and Good Egg Safety this week reported interim results from a series of child car seat checking events across Cambridgeshire.  The first six checks have seen only 47% of seats correctly fitted.  Of the remainder, 34% had minor faults, 12% had major faults and 7% were incompatible to the child or car.  Shockingly, these results are above average for the UK, where only 45% of seats checked have been found to be fitted correctly!

In the UK only 45% of 2,361 seats checked have been found to be fitted correctly

Having been to some of the events myself,  it is evident that a lack of awareness is a big problem, with many parents not realising that car seats do not necessarily fit all cars, or not understanding how tightly the seat or harness should be fitted.

It is a sad fact that advice from many retailers can be inconsistent and very much dependent on the expertise of the individual member of staff at the time.  Therefore, I would urge all parents to do their homework before buying any car seat, and also to check their seats are still compatible if they get a new car!

There are plenty of sources of advice for parents now in addition to the manufacturer's own websites, it is just a case of knowing where to look.  I've mentioned some before in previous blog posts, but here you go:

• Good Egg Safety
• The In-Car Safety Centre
• Rear Facing: Facing the Facts
• Rear Facing: The Way Forward

If you take one thing away from reading this, however good you think your seat(s) might be fitted, please find out where your nearest seat checking event is (you will find lots on the Good Egg Safety website) and get it checked: better to be safe than sorry!