I saw this news item on the local BBC News programme today. Leicestershire police are apparently giving motorists caught using their mobiles while driving the option of attending a road safety awareness clinic instead of being fined/given points.
The website story doesn’t mention the thing being an option, but the TV programme definitely said it was.
I can understand the need to do something about the problem, but I’m not sure this is the solution. It’s just letting people off after committing a clear offence that they knew about.
On the news clip, they interviewed some stupid woman who’d been caught. She said:
This way, I won’t be on my phone – I won’t even have it in my hand now.
She shouldn’t have been on the bloody thing in the first place. She knew it was wrong. She’d have been just as reticent – probably more so - about doing it again if she’d been fined, given points, AND forced to watch the road safety video.
I don’t agree with the softly-softly approach, and especially not unless it is happening across the country and not just in one county. These people are menaces, and should be taken off the roads and not encouraged to stay on them.