If you get caught misusing a mobile phone at the wheel in Britain, you'll get a fine, points penalty and a whack to your insurance premium
Drivers who chat on the phone are getting a triple whammy in Britain
Inusurance company Allianz is penalising their customers in Britain who get caught using a mobile phone while driving.
If a driver cops a fine – and the points penalty – they will now also be stung with having to pay 30 per cent more for their insurance.
That’s a bigger whack across the wallet than you’d get for blotting your record with a speeding fine.
In fact, it brings the policy penalty in line with that imposed if you’ve been hit with a dangerous driving offence.
That’s because Allianz reckons that if you’re using your mobile behind the wheel, it should be categorised as dangerous driving.
No argument here, but we think Allianz hasn’t gone anywhere near far enough.
If using a mobile without a hands-free kit is a ``dangerous and needless act’’ – as the sage and sober accountant types at Allianz put it – then it opens a whole bootload of possibilities for making our roads safer.
How about some penalties for the thumping doof-doof stereo systems that render the driver deaf to any surrounding traffic, not to forget shattering windows and generally startling the horses. The cars all seem to be playing the same track in any case, and just one would be loud enough for the rest of them to hear it in the next postcode.
And why are there no penalties for eating while you’re driving. If a mobile phone can sap some of your concentration on the job at hand, how much more is put under load while you try to wrestle with a rapidly disintegrating hamburger?
How about the visibility lost by trying to block out the rear window with a row of scatter cushions and toys on the parcel rack. Not to mention all those nauseating `baby on board’ signs, No Fear decals and the full range of bumper stickers designed to communicate how great a wit the driver is.
And don’t get us started on twinkling dangly crystals swinging across the line of vision from the rearview mirror. Our fervent hope is that they get up enough momentum to smack the owner across the noggin.
It looks certain that other insurance companies in Britain – and probably all over the rest of the world – will follow suit in raising policy premiums for those caught with mobiles.
For a start, we’ve yet to see an insurance company turn down the chance to charge more. But road safety experts have applauded the move, and even the polled public seem to approve.
Of the 3000 motorists surveyed by the insurance company, 56 per cent said they saw someone using a mobile phone while driving every day.
They must have been seeing the same few people driving around and chatting a lot, because only 10 per cent of those surveyed admitted they had ever used a phone behind the wheel without a hands-free kit.
And around 66 per cent said they thought the change of policy by Allianz was a `good’ or `very good’ idea, although there are no details about whether any of those are from the 10 per cent of sinners.
