Mobile phones: a bad call - The dangers

Last year, a van driver looking for his ringing mobile swerved and crashed through the central reservation of a motorway.

He killed three people in an oncoming car and injured a fourth. After admitting three counts of causing death by dangerous driving, he was jailed.

There are many more examples of fatal accidents in which phone use was a contributory factor, but exact numbers are unclear because accident reports don't include data about phone use.

More people than ever are using the phone in the car, and there are more people picking it up than using hands-free kits, according to research carried out for the DfT by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) last year. In 2004, hands-free was the more popular method of making calls.

Drivers are still complacent about the risks - both of getting caught and causing an accident.

'When we stop a driver who's been on the phone, most agree they are in the wrong,' says PC Dave Lawton, a Roads Policing Officer in Surrey, 'but it's a constant problem.'