Lawyer welcomes tougher penalties for drivers using mobile phones
Accident whilst using mobile phone
20/12/2007
A leading personal injury lawyer has welcomed plans to crack down on drivers who endanger other road users by using mobile phones at the wheel.
Latest guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) recommends that motorists caught driving dangerously whilst using a mobile phone face jail, following concerns that too many drivers continue to flout the ban.
Philip Edwards a Partner with the Birmingham office of national law firm, Irwin Mitchell, said: “This is good news as it sends a clear message to drivers that mobile phones are a distraction that can affect their ability to drive safely. And anything which helps reduces the human tragedy of deaths and serious injury on our roads, is to be welcomed.
Accident caused when using mobile phone
Irwin Mitchell represented the family of 13-year-old Rebecca Casterton, who together with her school friend, 12-year-old Lauren Brooks, died after the car they were travelling in was in collision with a lorry, whose driver was found to have been using a mobile phone.
The accident happened on the southbound carriageway of the busy A38 at around 6pm on Friday 20th January 2006.
The two friends, both pupils at John Taylor High School in Barton-under-Needwood, were returning from a horse riding lesson when the accident happened.
The girls had been rear seat passengers in the car, driven by Lauren’s mother, Mrs Irene Corrie. The impact of the crash caused their car to swerve violently and overturn with such force that it somersaulted over the central crash barrier, landing on the opposite carriageway. It was then hit by another car before finally coming to rest.
Mrs Corrie and another passenger survived the accident but sadly Rebecca died at the scene and Lauren died later in hospital.
A jury at Stafford Crown Court heard that Murray had been using a mobile phone without a hands-free kit moments before the collision. Prosecutors claimed that Murray had been calling his wife and that he had been distracted having made the call or by what he did with the handset afterwards.
Murray, from Wrockwardine Wood in Telford was found guilty of two charges of death by dangerous driving and was later sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail.
Phil Edwards added: “This is a tragic but all too familiar story of a driver failing to take appropriate care on the road. Although there has been a ban on using hand held mobile phones whilst driving for more than three years now, too many drivers still think they are above the law and that it doesn’t apply to them. On this occasion, the distraction of using a hand held mobile and a moment’s lapse of concentration led to the loss of two young lives.”